The group posted a £2.7m pre-tax loss for the year to June 2026 against a £20.5m profit last time despite revenue jumping 12% to £410m.

The biggest hit was a £7.1m provision to fix roads and other infrastructure on completed developments so they can finally be adopted by local authorities.

Gleeson also booked a £4.5m charge after ditching a string of planned housing sites and £2m of restructuring costs under its Project Transform shake-up.

The overhaul has seen 56 redundancies alongside the creation of 35 new roles, with Gleeson expecting the changes to strip around £2m from annual costs.

Even before the exceptional charges, adjusted pre-tax profit more than halved to £10.8m from £21.9m.

Gleeson Homes increased sales by nearly 10% to 1,968 properties, lifting divisional revenue 15% to £400m.

But build cost inflation of 4.5% outran selling price growth, squeezing gross margin on home sales to 18.7% from 20.7%.

The group has pulled out of 12 conditionally purchased sites, combined its Greater Manchester and Cumbria operations and folded East Yorkshire into a wider Yorkshire region.

Its housing land pipeline has been cut sharply from 19,638 to 14,927 plots as management tightens its approach to land buying and working capital.

Problems were compounded at Gleeson Land, where a slowdown in transactions sent the division from a £7m operating profit to a £700,000 loss.

The house builder has also started the new financial year against a tougher backdrop.

Open-market reservation rates dropped to 0.44 homes per site per week during the nine weeks to September 6 from 0.55 a year earlier after what Gleeson described as a “much weaker August than usual”.

Chief executive Graham Prothero said: “Importantly, recognising that this subdued market may not improve anytime soon, we are focused on managing the business as efficiently as possible and taking a prudent stance on cash, working capital and site acquisitions.”

Net debt edged up to £2.6m while the total dividend has been slashed to 5p a share from 11p.

Gleeson warned that planning delays, fewer operating sites and build costs continuing to outrun selling price rises would slow the recovery in margins.

But the board still expects FY2027 results to meet current market expectations, which point to adjusted pre-tax profit of £18.8m.