Housebuilder reveals £194m pre-tax loss but three-year refinancing deal struck with lenders

Redrow has been forced to make a writedown of more than £250m, but announced it had struck a deal with its banking partners until 2011.

The ailing housebuilder recorded a pre-tax loss of £193.9m for the year to 30 June 2008, due mainly to a writedown of £259.4m on the group's land holdings and work in progress.

But there was a ray of light for the group's shareholders, as Redrow announced it had refinanced its banking arrangements, allowing it a £450m debt facility to cover the next three years.

Turnover fell 22% to £650.1m, down from £834.3m in 2007. The company completed almost 900 fewer units than it did in 2007, down from 4,823 to 3,925 at an average selling price of £156,900 (down from £159,900 in 2007). Redrow confirmed that it had made more than 500 redundancies, reducing its headcount by approximately 40%.

Alan Bowkett, chairman of Redrow, has called on the government to intervene in the rapidly deteriorating mortgage market.

He said: “It is important that the government review their proposals for the value of land to pay for a wide range of initiatives relating to sustainability, infrastructure and social policies.

“Without this review the short-term adverse consequences for the economy and the longer-term impact on housing supply could be very significant.”

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