Taylor Wimpey workers to get £1,000 to help with soaring energy bills: reaction

Workers at Taylor Wimpey, the housebuilding heavyweight, are to get up to £1,000 on top of their regular pay to help with soaring energy bills.

The group said it will make monthly payments to all employees on salaries of up to £70,000, meaning that around 90 per cent of its workforce is eligible. All staff that are paid weekly will benefit from the cost-of-living payouts and will receive the full amount, the firm added.

The money will be paid in monthly instalments from September through to February.

Taylor Wimpey said it has recently been reviewing wages across the group to “ensure competitive levels of pay, alongside our excellent benefits package”.

It added: “We have been closely monitoring the impact of rising inflation and the predicted increase in fuel bills this winter on the cost of living for our employees.”

Rival Barratt Developments recently announced a £1,000 cost-of-living bonus for 6,000 of its staff below senior management level, having already brought forward a 5 per cent pay rise from July to April 1 to help staff with rocketing costs.

Taylor Wimpey also announced a 16.3 per cent rise in pre-tax profits to £334.5 million for the six months to the end of June and hiked its full-year earnings outlook to the top end of expectations.

The group said the upgrade came as it expects property prices to remain strong, up 4 per cent to 5 per cent year-on-year and said it continues to see completions rising by “low single figures”.

Taylor Wimpey is one of the biggest housebuilders in the UK and has a string of developments across Scotland. Picture: Rui Vieira/PA Wire

Taylor Wimpey has also been facing soaring build costs, of 9 per cent to 10 per cent, but said this was fully offset by house price growth.

The firm told investors: “The housing market continues to be resilient despite inflationary pressures in the wider economy and recent rises in the Bank of England base rate. There remains good availability of attractively priced mortgages, and we continue to see a healthy level of demand for Taylor Wimpey homes.”

The forward order book stood at £2.9 billion as of the end of July, compared with £2.7bn a year earlier.

Matt Britzman, equity analyst at financial services group Hargreaves Lansdown, said: “Taylor Wimpey capped off a strong first half where completions came in ahead of expectations and operating profit for the full year is now expected toward the top end of previous guidance.

“This was a good set of numbers against the backdrop of a record performance last year. There’s still a structural supply/demand imbalance in the UK propping up prices despite consumer spending power falling.”

Mark Crouch, an analyst at social investment network eToro, noted: “Housebuilders’ share prices have taken a battering since the start of the year as fears for the housing market and the cost of cladding remediation have taken their toll on valuations.

“However, look at Taylor Wimpey’s financials and you’ll see a robust business operating in a sector that is defying all expectations.

“Profit and margins are up [and] the housebuilder’s full-year guidance is relatively bullish, which will please shareholders,” he added.