The housebuilder announced in April 2017 that it was setting aside £130m to compensate customers affected by onerous leaseholds on their properties. It transpired that Taylor Wimpey was one of a number of firms to have sold freeholds to third party investment companies who then increased the ground rents.

The exceptional charge led to stated profits falling 5.8% to £555.3m, but stripping this out profit was up around £60m.

The FTSE 100 housebuilder delivered a 7.9% increase in revenue in 2017, to £3.96 billion, with pre-tax profits up 10.7% to £812m. This was helped by a 3.5% increase in the average selling price, to £264,000. Completions for the group in 2017 were up 4.6% to 14,842.

Chief executive Pete Redfern said: “2017 was another strong year for Taylor Wimpey and we enter 2018 in a good position with positive forward momentum. We have been encouraged by early trading patterns at the start to the year and despite some wider macroeconomic uncertainty, consumer confidence remains robust and market fundamentals are solid.

“We grew volumes to nearly 15,000 homes during the year and are focused on delivering much-needed homes across the UK to the highest quality and standard. Importantly, we are pleased to see that our investment in customer service has resulted in a notable improvement in our customer satisfaction scores.”