Pre-tax profit has fallen by more than 80 per cent in the full-year results for MJ Gleeson following the impact of Covid-19 but the listed housebuilder has pledged to invest in the business to support its target of building 2,000 new homes in 2022.

The company reported a pre-tax profit of £5.6m for the year ended 30 June 2020, down 86 per cent from £41.2m in 2018/19. Revenue reduced to £147.2m from £249.9m.

The volumes of units sold was down 29.9 per cent to 1,072 units from 1,529 the year before.

MJ Gleeson said the 2020 results reflected the impact of Covid-19 on its historically critical fourth quarter. However, a strong start to 2021 had been made, with record order book and work in progress, and high levels of demand.

The housebuilder emphasised it had a “strong platform for future growth” and re-affirmed target of reaching 2,000 units per annum in 2022.

Chairman Dermot Gleeson said: “First and foremost, and on behalf of my board colleagues, I would like to say how grateful we are to our employees, subcontractors, suppliers and customers in helping us to respond quickly to the Covid-19 crisis. These results, whilst a significant reduction on the prior year, reflect their efforts and the overall resilience of the business.

“We are currently seeing strong demand and expect this to continue through the year as the demographics of our customer base and the nature and price point of our product helps to insulate us from the impacts of rising unemployment, the end of the stamp duty holiday and the forthcoming changes to the Help to Buy scheme.

“We have therefore re-affirmed our interim target of delivering 2,000 homes per annum in 2022 and will prioritise investment in the business to achieve it.”

MJ Gleeson is headquartered in Sheffield with its Strategic Land division based in Fleet.