Bovis cuts more jobs and dividend

The housebuilder Bovis Homes has announced another 200 job cuts and decided not to pay a dividend.

A year ago the company employed 1,000 staff and it had already cut 400 of those jobs.

It said profits for 2008 would be as expected but warned trading conditions were “the worst seen in many years”.

Bovis completed 1,817 homes in 2008, down from 2,930 the previous year, but the average price paid fell from £179,500 to £150,000.

That was partly a result of falling house prices and partly due to the company building a higher proportion of cheaper, social housing.

Bovis said that its overheads in 2009 would be between 40% and 50% lower than in 2007.

source: bbc.co.uk