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Bellway breaks out of the red

Housebuilder Bellway has recovered from heavy losses last year to record a first-half pretax profit and is now looking to ramp up activity in the months ahead.

The Newcastle-headquartered firm posted a first-half pretax profit of £19m in the six months to end-Jan, compared with a loss of £48.6m in the same period last year.

Bellway, which analysts say is among the few housebuilders to be trading profitably, raised its interim dividend to 3.3 pence from 3 pence a year ago, and said it has spent £76m on land and land creditors in the period.

British house prices are grinding to a halt, after growing last month, to their slowest pace since August according to the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ruth Mitchell .