The house building and construction group delivered a near 30% rise in pre-tax profits to £17m on slightly increased turnover of £576m.

Construction operations contributed £11m of this profit on sales of £443m and improved operating margins from 2.4% to 2.5%.

Greg Fitzgerald, Galliford Try chief Executive, said: “Our strategy for managing our construction business in challenging times is working well and the underlying results give us confidence that we will be able to grow the business again when markets improve.

He added: “We are encouraged by the strength and resilience of our total construction order book which has been maintained at £1.75bn.”

The construction arm has started to see AMP5 water infrastructure work surging and an upswing in office building in the south east.

Housing is also back on track with profits up 39% at £9.9m on sales of £153m.

Visitor levels for the first seven weeks of 2011 were 17% above the same period last year.

After the failure of the seasonal Autumn uplift in sales, Fitzgerald said: “The spring selling season remains crucial, and although it is too early to judge whether it will be sustained, the improvement in our sales rate during the first few weeks of 2011 is encouraging.”

He added: “We are currently on track to deliver the objectives of our three year housebuilding expansion plan during the next financial year.

Total housing completions were up 28% to 851 units in the first half, with average selling prices up 4% at £204,000.

Fitzgerald added: “We now have all of the plots that we require, either owned or under our control, to deliver our planned output for the financial year to June 2012.”

The land bank currently stands at 10,000 plots, up from 9,300 a year ago.

He said that the Government’s designation of up to 80% of open market rent as affordable housing would  support development across the south of England in particular, where Galliford has a strong market presence.