Persimmon expects higher profits as help-to-buy props up prices

Housebuilder is one of the biggest beneficiaries of the taxpayer-funded schemePersimmon has upgraded its annual profit forecast after building more houses and increasing its prices, with nearly half the homes sold using the government’s help-to-buy scheme.Britain’s second-biggest housebuilder reported a 4% rise in revenues to £3.7bn in 2018, after completing 406 more homes than a year earlier, increasing the total by 3% to 16,449. The average selling price for private homes ros