Terry Massingham resigns from the board of the troubled firm with immediate effect; Paul Wallwork, finance director, to act as interim chief executive

Gleeson chief executive Terry Massingham has resigned from the board of the troubled firm with immediate effect.

In a statement released today, Gleeson said that Paul Wallwork, finance director, would act as interim chief executive pending the appointment of a permanent successor.

The announcement came as the firm revealed it would continue to scale down its activities outside the housing regeneration sector, which will be the focus of the business going forward. As of 30 June 2006 Gleeson had reduced its net debt to £18m from £102.3m at December 2005 largely as a result of disposals.

In a trading update, the firm said it anticipated the sale of the engineering division by the end of the year, together with further liquidation of traditional house building work. The update said that the group’s housing operations outside of regeneration would result in an overall loss for that business for the year to 30 June 2006.