Oh no, we're not land banking or anything like that...

From Bovis Homes' Interim Trading Statement:

· 54% increase in legal completions to 1,487 homes (H1 2013: 963 homes)

· A record 4,597 consented plots on 23 sites added to the land bank

· Growing consented land bank of 17,702 plots as at 30 June 2014 (31 December 2013: 14,638 plots)

· 19,608 plots of strategic land (31 December 2013: 20,108)

Righty-ho, if they sell 3,000 homes a year, that's enough land for the next twelve years. I wonder whether they've also stockpiled enough bricks for the next twelve years?

And anybody who says that they need this land in advance to enable them to build houses in future, the answer is that they don't build houses.

Their 2013 accounts show that they had 741 employees, these are primarily sales and admin people. Building a house is on average two or three man years, so the 3,000 homes they sell would require 6,000 - 9,000 workers - but these people are all subcontractors who are perfectly happy building houses and being paid for it, they do not demand a share of the planning gain.