Construction group Henry Boot saw profits decline in the first half of the year despite a growth in revenue, as uncertainty in the housing market increased.

The business saw a 24.5 per cent increase in revenue year-on-year to £179.8million, in the six months to 30 June.

However, underlying profit fell to £23.3million from £37.8million over the same time period, with the group saying that ‘uncertainty in our markets has increased’.

The Sheffield-based company’s revenue growth was partly boosted by strong property sales of £129.3million which was led by land promotion, development and housebuilding business, despite weakening markets.

Tim Roberts, its chief executive officer, said: ‘The first half of the year has seen our markets slow as interest rates have continued to rise, but, as these results show, our focus on prime strategic sites, high quality development and premium homes has provided us with a degree of resilience. 

‘This has helped us to report a very respectable underlying profit before tax of £23.3m, an increase in NAV of 3 per cent, plus the confidence to grow our interim dividend by 10 per cent.’

Sentiment on housebuilders has been hit as rising interest rates have significantly impacted the housing market, with City forecasters saying the Bank of England’s base rate could peak as high as 6.25 per cent as it tries to bring inflation to heel. 

Roberts added: ‘Whilst uncertainty in our markets has increased, we believe we have enough momentum to carry us through the year, although the outlook for 2024 for the time being is not so clear. 

‘However, we have conviction in our three markets which are driven by structural trends and I am pleased to report that we remain on track to hit our strategic growth and return targets over the medium term.’

Earlier this month, Britain’s largest home builder Barratt Developments revealed a slump in demand driven by the mortgage crunch, with new home reservations sliding by a third.

The housebuilder’s annual results revealed an increase in its pre-tax profits and revenue but it flagged that new home reservations had tumbled since July from an average of 0.6 homes per week to 0.42 homes per week.

It is said that women are more likely to want a daughter than a son.

But mothers with multiple children, beware: a study suggests that having three daughters can lead to a significant decline in wellbeing.

Researchers combined data from two large British studies which followed participants from birth to adulthood.

Subjects were surveyed at least once every decade, reporting their levels of life satisfaction and whether they had children.

Analysis revealed that after having a third child of the same sex, parents experienced a significant decline in their wellbeing compared to those who had a third child of the opposite sex to the first two.

This effect lasts for a decade, they discovered, and was entirely driven by mothers who had a third girl.

The researchers, from the London School of Economics and Political Science, also found that parents who had two children of the same sex were more likely to try for another child, and do so faster than those who already had a boy and a girl.

Lead author professor Paul Dolan said: ‘Parents who have two children of the same sex are more likely to try for a third in the hope that they will ‘win’ the birth lottery.

‘Our data suggests that the disappointment is mostly from mothers with two girls not having a boy, as opposed to mothers of two boys not having a girl..’

He reported his findings in a study titled: ‘All we want is a healthy baby – well, and one that is the opposite sex to what we have already.’

It reads: ‘We all know families with three boys or three girls.

‘Did they go on to have three children in the hope that the third child would be the opposite sex to the first two?

‘Are they disappointed when they have another child of the same sex?

‘We show that… having three children of the same sex negatively affects life satisfaction. This effect is driven entirely by mothers who have a third girl and lasts for 10 years after birth.

‘It seems that mothers with two girls are hopeful that they can have a boy and are disappointed if this does not happen.

‘We conversely found that having two children of the same sex boosts subjective wellbeing.’

Professor Dolan said the reason behind his findings could lie in mothers not wanting too many females in a household.

‘One possibility would be that this reflects the superior earning power of boys, which persists despite progress in gender equality,’ he wrote.

‘This would be a milder version of the preference observed for boys in developing countries.’

The research was published in Elsevier’s Journal of Behavioural and Experimental Economics.