Above: Greg Fitzgerald

In the six months to 31 December 2011, Galliford Try completed 1,352 housing units, up 59% on the same period in 2010 and a new company record. This follows a rights issue in 2009 to raise funds for buying land, mainly in the southeast. The land bank now stands at 10,700 plots, 76% of which was bought at post-crash...

Like-for-like sales were up 6% for the year to 31 December 2011, despite overall market volumes declining by between 4% and 5%.

Including BSS, group revenues were up 52% to £4.78bn.

Adjusted pre-tax profit was up 37% to £297m.

The target was to achieve £8m synergies from the integration of BSS in 2011. That target was well ...

For the six months to 31 December 2011, Barratt’s profit from operations was £61.1m (2010: £43.5m), a 40.5% increase, with operating margin increasing to 6.4% (2010: 5.0%).

Revenues for the half-year increased by 8.6% to £952.8m (2010: £877.6m).

Profit before tax was £21.6m (2010: loss before tax of £4.6m).

The second half...

In its pre-Budget submission, the CBI is calling on chancellor George Osborne to stimulating infrastructure investment through new models of private finance, including investment by pension funds. It proposes pooled investment platforms and improved ‘baton passing’ between the construction phase and long-term financing.

The idea is...