Persimmon’s latest trading update has revealed that it has cut its debt from £906m to £600m since June, but had no firm news on the progress of its refinancing talks.

It said there had been 10,202 legal completions in 2008 at an average selling price of £172,000, which represented turnover of about £1.76bn. In 2007, the housebuilder achieved 15,905 completions at an average selling price of £189,558, producing turnover of £3bn.