Persimmon tries to move itself on to firmer foundations

Results this week should show the housebuilder focusing on the quality of its homes after a period of heavy criticismPersimmon, one of the UK’s biggest housebuilders, has been testing the limits of the phrase “safe as houses” over the past couple of years. Its share price has been up and down as it grappled with two publicity storms.First, there was the outcry over the huge gains it made on the back of taxpayers’ largesse. The state-funded help-to-buy scheme, which helped