Plans to step up building activity were revealed as the house builder reported underlying profits jumped 49% to £330m last year, while sales broke through the £2bn mark, up by a fifth.

Nicholas Wrigley, group chairman, said the strong performance was driven by a 30% surge in completions in the second half of the year as Persimmon reacted to the gathering recovery.

He said: “The group entered 2014 with a very strong forward order book and the early weeks of the spring selling season have been encouraging, with our weekly private sales rate per site being 22% ahead of last year for the first eight weeks.

“We anticipate a further year of encouraging sales growth in 2014.”

He added that already forward sales were 41% ahead of last year at over £1.4bn.

Completions across the year climbed 16% to 11,528 homes, sold at average selling price of £181,861 , up 4%.

Of these Persimmon sold over 4,250 new homes to Help to Buy customers, of which 2,203 legally completed in 2013.

The house builder said operating margins recovered strongly from 12% in 2012 to 16% last year.

To replenish land before prices start to soar again Persimmon  acquired a further 17,735 plots in the year bringing consented  land bank to 74,407 or 6.5 years supply.