Skanska exits UK housebuilding
Skanska UK is to close its housebuilding arm as it looks to focus on other more profitable parts of the business, just two years after it was launched. Roger Bayliss, the Swedish firm’s UK vice president said yesterday that the other markets such as construction and commercial development were providing better returns than its housebuilding arm, Homes by Skanska, which was launched in 2011. “This has been a hard decision to make but from a capital allocation point of view the right thing to do,” he said, adding that it will now look to sell off its landbank accumulated over the past two years. The division has around 25 staff but only four are said to be at risk.