IN Brief:
- Vistry plans to consolidate 25 operating regions into 12 while targeting around 12,000 annual completions.
- The housebuilder will reduce its owned land bank and increase its operational emphasis on the North, Midlands and West.
- Annual overhead savings of £50m are targeted alongside previously announced workforce and recruitment measures.
Vistry Group is to reduce its operating structure from 25 regions to 12 as part of a reset that will also cut housing output, shrink its owned land bank and concentrate more activity in the North, Midlands and West.
The changes accompany results for the six months to 30 June 2026. Vistry completed 6,304 homes during the period, down 8% from 6,889 a year earlier, while adjusted revenue fell 9% to £1.70bn. The group moved from an adjusted pre-tax profit of £80.6m in the first half of 2025 to an adjusted loss of £83.3m.
Reported figures were weaker after exceptional charges. Vistry recorded a £661.3m pre-tax loss, compared with a £40.9m profit a year earlier, including a £475m impairment of goodwill and a further £73.2m building safety provision. Net debt at the end of June stood at £468.8m, against £293.1m at the same point in 2025.
Chief executive Adam Daniels’ review keeps mixed tenure housing at the centre of the business but at a smaller scale and with tighter controls over capital and regional performance. The medium term plan targets about 12,000 completions a year, with roughly 60% expected to be partner funded and 40% delivered for the open market.
The geographical balance will also change. Vistry intends to increase its exposure to the North, Midlands and West, while moving its South East operations to a fully presold model that removes direct open market exposure. Joint venture schemes in the South East can continue existing private sales, but new delivery will place greater emphasis on committed purchasers before construction progresses.
Reducing 25 regional businesses to 12 gives the restructuring a direct operational effect. Larger regions will carry responsibility for more sites, while Vistry plans to simplify brands, house types and processes. The company is seeking greater consistency in decisions on land, infrastructure, build rates and capital allocation across its remaining operating areas.
The land bank is being reshaped alongside the regional network. Vistry intends to reduce owned land from about 51,000 plots to 36,000, targeting roughly three years of owned land and at least 18 months of controlled land. New acquisitions will face tighter investment criteria, while selected existing assets are expected to be realised as the group reduces capital tied up in the balance sheet.
A smaller regional structure and narrower product range will also feed into procurement, subcontractor allocation and site sequencing. Suppliers have already been watching Vistry closely after credit insurance limits were reported to have tightened for some transactions during the summer. Vistry has said its supply chain continues to operate normally, but the restructuring now adds a separate change to the way workload will be organised across its sites.
The company expects another £50m of annual overhead savings from fewer regions, flatter management structures and lower volumes. That comes on top of £25m of annual savings previously identified through a voluntary exit programme and recruitment freeze. Vistry expects the new restructuring and earlier measures to cost about £40m during 2026, with the full run rate of the additional savings reached within two years.
Housing partnerships remain central to the revised model. Vistry has been named a strategic partner in the first wave of the Social and Affordable Housing Programme for 2026 to 2036 and secured a £350m direct grant allocation. The company says that award can support more than 3,000 affordable homes, with construction already beginning under the programme.
The revised forward order book stands at £3.3bn after Vistry tightened its definition to include only exchanged or otherwise legally contracted orders. It says it is 91% forward sold for 2026, with 90% of partner funded sales secured. Private market conditions have been weaker, with the open market sales rate slowing during the summer to 0.3 reservations per outlet per week.
Vistry is entering 2027 with fewer operating regions, less owned land and a lower planned output than the business carried into 2026. Its longer term targets include return on capital employed above 30%, a 12% operating margin by 2031, capital employed of about £1.5bn and average daily net debt of around £300m by 2029. The immediate test is whether the enlarged regions can maintain construction control and partner delivery while the company removes cost and capital from the business.
