He also raised concerns about the state of the secondary housing market - the sale of homes that are not new - adding that Redrow relied on people selling up to stimulate the purchase of its own new homes. He said the Government needed to simplify the planning system if it was to meet its target to build one million homes by 2020. Redrow reported another set of record results on Wednesday, building more homes in the last six months than ever before and pushing profits up 26pc. The company cheered investors by increasing its interim dividend by 50pc to 9p as it shrugged off wider concerns about the state of the housing market. Redrow built 2,911 homes in the six months to December 31, 14pc higher than the same period in the previous year. This, along with a higher average selling price of £309,800, pushed revenue up 20pc to a first-half record of £890m, while pre-tax profits jumped 26pc to £176m. The company also hit a record level for its order book, which was worth £1.05bn at the end of December, 5pc ahead of the previous year. The results lifted shares in all the major housebuilders on Wednesday morning, despite a weaker than expected result from the latest Halifax House Price Index, which showed that annual house price growth continued to slow and there were fewer new properties coming to the market.
Chairman of Redrow Homes , David Morgan , said the UK government should be doing more to incentivise house moves and should simplify the planning process if it is to meet its target of building one million homes by 2020 . Morgan noted that transaction costs , largely driven by stamp duty , could slow the housing market , as they are " so high that it ’s a detriment for people to move " . Research by RICS found that changes to planning policy aimed at reducing stamp duty for the majority of first - time buyers had little impact on property sales .