HOUSEBUILDER Persimmon saw its share price touch an all-time high as it reported a 30 per cent bump in pre-tax profits to £457 million for the first six months of the year.

Revenue at the group was up 12 per cent to £1.7 billion as both completions and average selling price continued to rise.

But chairman Nicholas Wrigley raised issues over the uncertainty facing the UK and the impact this could have on the industry.

He said: “We will remain cautious with respect to new land investment for as long as the uncertainties facing the market persist, particularly those associated with the risks to the UK economy resulting from the UK’s exit from the EU.”

Finance director Mike Killoran said he was “pleased with Scottish performance”, adding that Persimmon wants to remain a major player in the industry in Scotland.

The company again criticised the time it takes to obtain planning consent for major developments north of the Border, with Mr Killoran called it a “painful process”.

“But having said that we’re up for the wrestling match and we do have good visibility in each of our Scottish businesses as land comes through,” he said.

The group’s chief executive Jeff Fairburn said the group had “built a platform for its future success” but added that it remained vigilant to changes in market conditions.

These changes include creeping inflation and the potential of the first increase in interest rates for more than a decade, along with the unpredictable impact of political uncertainty.

However, Mr Killoran said the fundamentals of the market remained strong, while the lending market was more sustainable as a result of stricter eligibility, adding that: “No one wants an overblown market in terms of slack lending decisions”.

“What we need to think about in terms of the [current housing] cycle, where is the lending market, where is affordability, where is the industry in terms of the number of outlets it has available to sell products because we know one of the key constraints is planning complexities,” he said.

Persimmon’s Scottish chairman John Cassie has previously called on the Scottish Government to apply pressure to local authorities to ensure they make sufficient land available to meet housing targets.

Mr Killoran called for more land to be released so the industry “can offer choice to customers on a broader footing and meet demand”.

Persimmon’s average selling price across the UK was up four per cent year-on-year to £213,262 with the average weekly private sales rate of 0.8 per site up about seven per cent on last year.

The group launched its current long-term strategy in 2012, which is focused on sustaining the delivery of “superior levels of shareholder value and cash generation”.

An interim dividend of 25 pence per share was paid in March, in addition to a post-period payment of 110p per share on July 3 which was the sixth payment of its ongoing capital plan.

The group has returned £1.5bn to shareholders since this plan commenced, equal to £4.85 per share. This is £630m ahead of what it had originally planned.

The group plans to return a further £4.40 per share to be paid in equal instalments of £1.10 per share over the next four years.

Its share price collapsed to 1,289p after the Brexit-vote but has recovered to reach an all-time high, closing up 1.76 per cent to 2,601p.

From the launch of its strategy in 2012 to 30 June 2017 the Group has delivered 72,500 new homes across the UK, invested close to £3bn in new land and opened more than 1,100 new sales outlets.

Looking ahead, Mr Wrigley said the market remained confident and consumer sentiment was resilient, in spite of the group’s comments regarding the economic uncertainty relating to Brexit.

“The potential headwinds of higher inflation are being mitigated by healthy employment levels and a competitive but disciplined mortgage market,” he said.