More house building jobs go in summer gloom

By Dan Lalor and Mark Potter

LONDON (Reuters) - Two of the biggest builders Bovis Homes and Redrow are cutting 40 percent of their workforces, 750 jobs in total, to cope with the deepening depression in the housing market.

The downturn has gathered pace and now feels "an awful lot worse" than the last major correction in the early 1990s, David Ritchie, chief executive of Bovis Homes Group, said on Wednesday.

The comment came just before the Bank of England's interest rate-setting committee began its monthly meeting and followed recent announcements of 3,000 job cuts at Barratt Developments, Persimmon and Taylor Wimpey.

But there was some better news from Bovis which said it did not as yet expect any big writedowns of the value of its land holdings, although it will slash its dividend and cut 400 jobs at a cost of 2 million pounds.

House builders' share prices have collapsed this year, partly on fears of big writedowns on land bought at the peak of the housing market. The mood worsened on June 30 when indebted Taylor Wimpey announced a 660 million pounds writedown.

Bovis shares, which peaked at 1,220 pence in April 2007, were down 1.4 percent at 313 pence at 9 a.m.

Redrow, which is cutting 350 job at a cost of 3 million pounds, said it would significantly reduce the value of its land holdings and was reviewing its dividend policy.

Its shares, which had underperformed other House builders by 30 percent over the past fortnight, recovered 11 percent to 107 pence. The stock peaked at 737 pence in January 2007.