New ceo for CALA

CALA has appointed Kevin Whitaker as its new group chief executive.

Whitaker, who is currently one of the company’s two regional chairs and was previously managing director of CALA Homes East, will take on his new role on August 1.

Finance director Graham Reid had assumed the role of interim chief executive at the end of April 2018 after the retirement of Alan Brown and will remain in the position until August.

The announcement was made as CALA issued a trading update for the 12 months to June 30 2018, the first since Legal & General fully acquired the group in March. CALA’s total home completions are up 29% to 2,171 with the private ASP reduced to £463,000 (2017: £497,000) driven by a change in site mix and continued transition away from homes priced above £1 million where CALA says trading is “generally more difficult”.

In all 29 new sites (2,836 plots) were contracted during the year with a potential gross development value of £1.1 billion and planning permission granted on 29 sites (3,116 plots) with a potential GDV of £1.1 billion.

Private revenue per site per week is up 2% to £277,000 with private sales per …