The following is excerpted from the question-and-answer section of the transcript.
(Questions from industry analysts are provided in full, but answers are omitted - download the transcript to see the full question-and-answer session)
Question: Aynsley Lammin - Canaccord Genuity Corp., Research Division - Analyst
: All right. Yes, 3 questions from me if I could, please. Just firstly, consensus obviously staying in line. Just want to confirm your view. Consensus was
around I think GBP 1.042 billion, seems to be on Reuters for '19 and then secondly, just on land replacement, I think you replaced around 10,000
plots. Should we read anything into that? Is that more cautious land spend in '19 given all the election and uncertainty there and would that move
back up or are you kind of just willing to shrink the land bank a bit? And then thirdly, just on the independent review, of course you can't -- just
because before Christmas, any change in thought to that just as you've digested what you saw there, whether it's in the cost pounds million or just
the kind of priorities you'll be focusing on for 2020?
Question: Christopher James Millington - Numis Securities Limited, Research Division - Analyst
: A few for me, if possible. So -- you know me, Mike, it won't be that long. So first and foremost, we've heard a few comments around the start of
year/end of year trends. I'm just wondering if you could flesh out a bit. It sounds like you're seeing a slightly better activity, but I just wonder if you
could put a few figures on those visitor numbers or something like that, just a touch more detail. Next one's really just on where you are on stock
levels. I presume you've got some sort of measure you're monitoring period-over-period. So perhaps just a little bit more that. And then I just
wanted to go back quickly to Dave's comment on -- we feel we're now pretty much at the optimal WIP. So I take your point, Dave, that you probably
will release a bit of cash from land investment this year. Is it fair to say we're almost on kind of an even keel with regard to WIP as well as we look
through this year, obviously depending on market conditions?
Question: Clyde Lewis - Peel Hunt LLP, Research Division - Analyst
: Three if I may as well. Firstly on sort of selling prices and I suppose incentives as well as sort of -- through the back end of the year, if you could sort
of give us a little bit more color about around sort of what you were seeing there in terms of whether you're able to move headline prices at all on
what was happening on incentives. Second one was on regional variations. I mean you haven't really said anything so far today. Just wondering,
has there been any that sort of are of note? And then lastly, really was on Help to Buy. I'm just sort of intrigued to hear how that has evolved in
terms of sort of usage, again through the second half of 2019.
|
