Vistry’s new chief executive, Adam Daniels, yesterday laid out a strategy to return the firm, at significant cost and through a substantial restructuring programme, to annual output of 12,000 homes – broadly the scale at which it was operating four years ago. This raises a central question: what has changed during that period, and what does the reversal indicate about the previous strategy?

Vistry’s results for the year to December 31, 2022, the last before its £1.2bn takeover of partnerships housebuilder Countryside, saw it report completions of 11,951, exactly the level it is now targeting. It also that year made £418m in adjusted pre-tax profit and 25% return on the capital invested (ROCE) – a healthy business.

But following that, under the stewardship of former executive chairman Greg Fitzgerald, the firm embarked on a dash for growth, with a stated ambition to build 25,000 homes a year. Fitzgerald even talked of building 30-40,000 a year  – way beyond anything managed in the UK before – aiming to break the mould of the UK housebuilding industry.

Four years later, the expansion strategy had coincided with average daily net debt rising to about £800m, weaker returns and a substantial reduction in Vistry’s market value. The company’s statement offered its own diagnosis: “the pace of change meant that the operating model, controls and culture did not scale consistently with the group’s volumes.”

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