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Persimmon to adopt Hackitt principles amid wider business review

Persimmon has announced an independent review of its services following controversies over quality and executive pay, as well as plans to adopt the principles of the Hackitt Review.

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Picture: Getty
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The country’s second-largest house builder said that the review is intended to assess the effectiveness of measures put in place by its new chair and chief executive to improve workmanship and customer support.

Stephanie Barwise, QC of commercial law firm Atkin Chambers, will chair the review, reporting to Persimmon’s board with initial findings to be published later this year. Her final report will be made public.

Persimmon said that the review will “examine in detail” areas such as its customer care culture, quality assurance processes, construction inspection regime and use of advertising.

Buyers of Persimmon homes, staff, councils, civil servants and trade bodies are all expected to feed into the review.

The house builder has also pledged to adopt the principles of the Hackitt Review of building regulations and fire safety, in the wake of the Grenfell Tower tragedy. Persimmon said it is doing this despite not building high rises, but flagged that the Hackitt principles are “designed to effect culture change within the construction industry”.

Build quality among major house builders has remained in the spotlight in recent years. In 2017, Bovis apologised and set aside £7m in compensation to customers for poor-quality homes.


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Roger Devlin, chair of Persimmon, said: “Our objective is clear: we must ensure that all our customers are provided with the care, service and high-quality homes that they rightfully expect.”

He added: “An independent review is an important exercise which will establish whether the many changes we are making are going far enough and fast enough for the benefit of both our customers and our wider stakeholders in the business.”

Jeff Fairburn, Persimmon’s former chief executive, left the business last December after the company said controversy over his £75m bonus had become a “distraction”.

The firm said no executives will receive bonuses in 2019. The pay for Mr Fairburn’s replacement, Dave Jenkinson, has not changed with his promotion to chief executive. All Persimmon staff are now paid in line with Living Wage Foundation recommendations, the company said.

In March, it also became the first UK house builder to offer a retention, where buyers may withhold 1.5% of their new home’s value until faults are fixed.

Persimmon said it has a “clear ambition” to achieve at least a four-star rating in the Home Builders Federation’s customer satisfaction survey.

Its current rating is three stars, the lowest among national house builders, together with others including Galliford Try, Kier, Lovell and Keepmoat.

Nevertheless, it still announced record profits topping £1bn in February.

Ms Barwise is also currently representing a group of survivors and the bereaved at the public inquiry into the Grenfell Tower disaster.

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