Bovis Homes said it will build 39% fewer homes this year as it battles with the “worst trading environment for many years”.

Bovis said that full-year profit was still on course to meet analysts’ expectations, but that it would sell 1,800 homes in 2008, compared with 2,930 in 2007, with one-third of the homes being affordable. It said it had also stopped buying or selling land. The firm warned that it was likely to make a writedown on the value of its strategic land in December.