American sales help cut Taylor Wimpey debt

Housebuilder Taylor Wimpey unveiled the sale of its North American businesses for $955 million (£595m) yesterday under plans to focus solely on the UK housing market.

Its North American business - which includes Taylor Morrison, the ninth largest homebuilder in the US, and its Canadian business Monarch Homes - have been sold to private equity firm TMM.

The group said the sale would help it pay off some of its 654 million debt pile and allow it to focus on buying more land in the UK.

The group will concentrate on maximising profits from sales of homes in the UK, where it said the housing market was relatively attractive as a result of an undersupply of new housing.

Some 32.5m from the deal, which still needs the approval of shareholders, will be paid into the group's pension fund.