The house builder said that net private reservations per average week were 188 compared to 281 for the year as a whole and net private reservations per active outlet per average week were 0.55 compared to 0.85 for the whole year and 0.87 in 2021.

Barratt blamed wider economic uncertainty, where growing cost of living concerns have been compounded by increased mortgage interest rates and reduced mortgage availability.

David Thomas, chief executive said: “We continue to see strong levels of interest across the country, however private reservations remain below the level seen in the year to July as customers react to the wider economic uncertainty.

“While the outlook for the year is less certain, we remain on track to deliver adjusted profit before tax for the year in line with current consensus.”

He said that construction activity continued to grow with 367 (FY22: 335; FY21: 294; FY20: 364) equivalent homes constructed per average week since the last year financial end in July.

But he warned: “We will be closely monitoring changing market conditions in the coming months to ensure our site build programmes align with home delivery scheduling to meet customer commitments within our order book, as well as ongoing market demand.

“We continue to expect build cost inflation of between 9% and 10% for FY23.”