Senior executive quits Countryside

ONE of the executives who helped take Countryside Properties public in 2016 has left, despite it posting a 43pc jump in sales of new homes.

Chief operating officer Rebecca Worthington also resigned as a director of the company, which specialises in urban regeneration and mostly builds homes in London and the South East.

The 47-year- old mother- of-two joined in 2015 and played a key role in its float in 2016.

Chairman David Howell said she had made ‘an outstanding contribution to the business’. She is also a non-executive director at British Land.

Her departure came as Countryside yesterday said in a trading update that it built 2,632 homes in the six months to March 31, up from 1,655 in the same period of 2018.

And it indicated that momentum is returning to the housing market, saying that demand from buyers picked up in the second quarter.

Its forward order book – the amount of work it is signed up to do – jumped by 49pc to £1bn.

Shares rose 5pc, or 16p, to 336.2p.