Steve Morgan, Redrow’s founder, pledged to rebuild the group after reporting the worst trading results in the builder’s history.

Morgan, who founded the north Wales-based builder with a £5,000 loan in 1974 and bought his way back to the executive chairmanship by building up a 30 per cent stake this year, said he was seeing signs of recovery from the 'pretty horrendous' conditions experienced last year.

'We’ve had six months that was bloody awful and six months that was relatively stable,' he said.

Financial Times, The Times