Persimmon, Bovis Homes, Redrow and Barratt to report disappointing figures to the City this week

Four of the seven listed volume housebuilders are due to make gloomy trading updates to the City this week.

Persimmon will begin tomorrow and is expected to announce about 1,000 redundancies alongside deteriorating trading figures.

Wednesday will see Bovis Homes and Redrow report their latest figures, which are also expected to show a sharp fall in sales since April this year.

On Thursday Barratt is due to announce a refinancing package with its banks that is expected to include news that it has agreed a relaxation of its banking covenants and fresh debt of £400m that it needs to finance the £2.2bn purchase of Wilson Bowden last year.

It follows a downbeat announcement last week by Taylor Wimpey that said it had failed to secure a £500m rescue package from investors. It also announced the departure of finance director Peter Johnson and the loss of 900 jobs.

It said UK reservations were 45% down on the half-year to the end of June 2007.

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