Taylor Wimpey chief executive Pete Redfern believes the Scottish housing market is "heading in the right direction" again after being slower out of the dip than its English counterpart.

The housebuilder is seeing solid and sustained interest at sites in Scotland and the rest of the UK.

That led to its order book rising from £960 million to £1.3 billion in the six months to June 30.

Total housing completions in the period rose from 5083 to 5192 in the UK with average prices rising from £176,000 to £187,000.

The price rise was mainly due to larger homes being sold from better quality sites although there was a small underlying increase.

Mr Redfern said: "When we say better quality sites people tend to think that means London and the south of England but really it is A or B class sites in Edinburgh, Glasgow or Aberdeen or wherever we might be.

"We are seeing a rise of about 2% in underlying prices which is fine. We don't want to see prices running at 5% and 10% ahead as that creates an unstable market.

"If house prices are running along with inflation and the price of other goods then that is the housing industry running along with the economy rather than running away from it."

Customers were said to be using government backed mortgage schemes, including MI New Home in Scotland, positively along with the English shared equity scheme Help To Buy.

Mr Redfern said: "We would say MI New Home is doing ok. With any of these schemes we invest a lot of time and effort into how we operate it and how we present it to customers.

"Generally Scotland was slower to recover than England but is back now heading in the right direction."

Along with improved availability and affordability of mortgages, Mr Redfern highlighted improving consumer confidence and people feeling more secure in their jobs as among the factors helping home buying sentiment.

Mr Redfern reaffirmed his belief the government-backed mortgage scheme must be tapered off steadily in the coming years and said: "I think people are getting overly worried about it creating a [housing] bubble but that doesn't mean I don't think there are risks if this is managed badly. There needs to be some sort of carefully managed [exit] structure and it should be staggered out so everyone knows where they stand."

Operating profit margins were said to have improved in the half year because of cheaper land purchases and more efficiency in building on sites and Mr Redfern said: "It is thinking about things like taking a bit longer to get the sites set up right in the first place and plan it right as a project.

"The industry has tended to be a bit hand to mouth in the past but good planning saves you time in the end and cost all the way through."

Taylor Wimpey also expects to write-back some of the impairment charges it previously took on the value of its land. Further details are expected at its half-year results announcement.

Mr Redfern said: We feel there is enough of an improvement [in the market] at this stage that when we complete the detailed calculations we will write some value back."

Jefferies analysts said the write-back was further proof of the market recovery and added: "Whilst we expect the quantum to be small, the symbolism is quite the opposite. In our view, the Group is expressing confidence that the market is now more likely to move up than down."

Shares in Taylor Wimpey closed up 6.85p, or 7%, at 103.8p.