It said total sales reserved, contracted or completed at the end of December stood at £324m compared to £281m a year ago.

And its construction business continues to perform well in challenging markets.

Cash generation in its contracting business remains excellent.

The group held net cash of around £100m at 31 December compared with£34.1m at 30 June and £1m a year ago.

The company has submitted an appeal to the competition appeal tribunal over the £8.33m fine imposed by the Office of Fair Trading in respect of three incidences of cover pricing that took place in the early 2000s, for which an exceptional provision will be made in the financial statements for the half year.

Story provided by Business Financial Newswire