<p><span>Tom Nicholson, Crest Nicholson’s chief operating officer, is to leave the business, following the housebuilder achieving "significant progress" in “transforming the group’s operations”.</span></p> <p><span>The company said that both the board and Nicholson had agreed “now is the right time for Tom to leave the organisation”. Nicholson joined Crest in May 2019 from Linden Homes to help execute the housebuilder’s turnaround strategy, with part of its plan to focus on improving its operational efficiency after experiencing difficult trading.</span></p> <p><span>He will not be replaced “in the short term”</span><span>; </span><span>the business stat</span><span>ed</span><span> it was undertaking a restructure of its </span><span>executive </span><span>leadership team. It will issue a further update on its strategy alongside its half year results on June 14.</span></p> <p><span>Crest said Nicholson was departing in recognition of “</span><span class="v"><span>the significant progress that has been achieved in transforming the group's operations and the acquisition of a skilled management team to deliver the next phase of its strategy”. </span></span></p> <p><span class="v"><span>It referred back to its updated strategy, announced in January 2020, which sought to improve its financial performance and “restore Crest Nicholson to being one of the UK's leading housebuilders”. T</span></span><span class="v"><span>he strategy’s</span></span><span class="v"><span> objectives had now been met, “ensuring that the first part of …