York-based house building giant Persimmon plc said it returned £750 million to shareholders by July 2022 as it announced first-half results that showed revenue slipped to £1.69 billion from £1.84 billion.

First-half profit before tax fell to £439.7 million from £480.1 million.

Persimmon reported “strong” demand with “robust” forward sales position and re-iterated its guidance of 14,500 -15,000 legal completions this year.

“On 1 April 2022 125p per share (or £399.0m) of surplus capital was returned to shareholders as an interim cash dividend in respect of the financial year 31 December 2021,” said Persimmon.

“On 8 July 2022 110p per share (or £351.1m) of surplus capital was returned to shareholders as an interim cash dividend in respect of the financial year 31 December 2021.

“In total, 235p per share of surplus capital has been returned to shareholders during 2022 in respect of the financial year 31 December 2021.”

Persimmon CEO Dean Finch said: “Persimmon continues to perform well. We are making important progress in quality, service, land investment opportunities and efficiencies to build an even stronger business, while continuing to deliver the strong financial returns that Persimmon is renowned for.

“Demand for our attractively priced, high quality homes has remained robust, with our average private sales rates for the period being c.1% ahead year on year.

“Our customer satisfaction score is currently 92%. We have some exciting new sites coming into the business at industry-leading margins, with a land replacement rate for the period of over 130% and expanded production in our own brick, tile and timber frame factories, is further enhancing our supply resilience and cost efficiency, enabling us to re-iterate our guidance of 14,500 – 15,000 legal completions for the full year.

“We are on track to achieve a c.10% increase in our active outlets by the end of the current year as we work to rebuild our outlet position after a land buying pause three years ago and are tackling the on-going challenges in the planning system.

“We are stepping up proactive engagement with local authorities, enhancing our approach to developing attractive communities and raising the bar on design to help mitigate planning challenges.

“We continue to expect our volume delivery to be significantly higher in the second half of the year.”