The York-based firm has seen revenues rise 15% in the first half of the year

Housebuilder Persimmon said the UK’s housing market remains “challenging” despite seeing a significant rise in sales in the first half of the year.

The York-based firm completed 5,189 sales – up 13% from the same period last year – and said it was on course to complete 12,500 homes in 2026, at the top end of its previous guidance. Group revenues increased 15% to £1.73bn and profit before tax was 15% up at £168m.

Persimmon said that net private sales were up 6% in the five weeks to the end of June, but it added that open market sales have “softened slightly in recent weeks” due to tough conditions in the wider housing market. Average house prices on its properties rose 1% to £285,752.

Group chief executive Dean Finch said: “Persimmon delivered a strong first half performance, growing our market share, increasing completions by 13% and underlying operating profit by 10%. In a challenging market, this performance demonstrates the strength of our established strategy, product mix and geographic footprint, alongside the benefits of our lower cost operating model, sustained investment in the business and ongoing commitment to self-help.

“We remain on track to deliver growth in 2026 in line with market expectations. I want to thank all my colleagues and our supply chain for their continued hard work in delivering this result.

“Market conditions remain challenging, with affordability constraints and build cost pressures affecting the sector. We have responded quickly, taking clear management action focusing on driving operational efficiencies throughout the business. Our disciplined land buying, industry-leading cost efficiency and vertically integrated operating platform give us important structural advantages as we seek to mitigate cost pressures and support growth.

“Persimmon’s strategy is delivering growth. Having significantly invested in our strategy over recent years, our focus is increasingly on converting those investments into improving returns. Our disciplined land investment at better margins, outlet growth, stronger brands and increasingly differentiated operating platform position us to progressively deliver higher volumes, stronger cash-generation and improving returns over time.”

Persimmon said it had increased market share and was “well-placed to drive further growth through our unique set of capabilities”. The company, which also operates the Charles Church brand, is the UK’s fourth largest housebuilder by volume, though, in common with its rivals, it has seen the number of homes it has built fall in recent years due to challenges in the wider economy.

Boss hails electric vehicle market as EV insurance surged 27% and European operations swung to profit

Admiral saw its profits slide as the insurance giant was dragged down by reduced earned premiums in its UK motor business.

The group’s pre-tax profit declined by 18 per cent to £429.2m in the first half of the year, while turnover held steady at £3.11bn.

Milena Mondini, group chief executive, told City AM the market had been particularly subdued at the end of 2024 and into 2025, prompting the insurer to raise prices at the start of the year to keep pace with claims inflation, adding that she anticipates this will bear fruit in the second half of the year.

Within its motor division, Admiral recorded a 27 per cent increase in its electric vehicle (EV) insurance book, alongside growing demand for its complimentary subscription service aimed at offsetting the costs of EV ownership.

Mondini said Cardiff-based Admiral has been “very competitive for EVs” from a very early stage as EVs are “a great feature for the planet”.

Notwithstanding the challenges facing its UK motor arm, its European operation swung to a profit of £17.2m, recovering from a £0.6m loss the previous year. Mondini said she was “particularly proud” of France, which was running at “very strong margin” and double‐digit growth.

Customer numbers climbed by 5 per cent, surpassing 12 million for the first time.

Admiral shares climbed 4.4 per cent in early trading on Thursday. The stock has gained more than a fifth in value since the beginning of the year.

Matt Britzman, senior equity analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown, said: “The headline profit decline only tells half the story. Yes, Admiral is feeling the impact of last year’s softer motor pricing, but under the hood, it’s navigating the turn in the cycle well.

“There are also encouraging signs that Admiral is becoming more than a UK Motor story. Household, Europe and Admiral Money are all moving in the right direction. Near-term earnings may remain a little uneven, but the route back to growth is becoming clearer, and the building blocks for a stronger 2027 are falling into place.”

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NEW YORK — Shares of Space Exploration Technologies Corp. plunged 13.61% on Wednesday, closing at $108.27 after the company’s first quarterly results as a public firm revealed explosive revenue growth that was overshadowed by heavy capital spending on artificial intelligence infrastructure and an impending release of insider shares.

The stock fell $17.06 from its previous close of $125.33, wiping out recent gains and extending a sharp decline from the June IPO peak near $225. After-hours trading saw a modest rebound to about $110. Volume surged well above average as investors weighed the debut earnings report against the scale of ongoing investment and a partial lockup expiration scheduled for Thursday that could free roughly 911 million employee and early-investor shares.

SpaceX reported second-quarter revenue of $7.81 billion, up 92% from $4.07 billion a year earlier and well above Wall Street estimates that clustered near $6.8 billion to $6.9 billion. The net loss narrowed to $541 million from $1.01 billion in the year-ago period. Adjusted EBITDA rose 191% to $3.54 billion. The company ended the quarter with approximately $100 billion in cash, cash equivalents and marketable securities and a backlog of $47.5 billion.

Revenue growth was broad-based. The Connectivity segment, anchored by Starlink, generated $4.29 billion, up 66% year over year, and produced $1.66 billion in operating income. Starlink subscribers doubled to 12 million. The AI segment delivered $2.56 billion in revenue, up 247%, though it recorded a $1.26 billion operating loss. The Space segment contributed $962 million in revenue with a $542 million operating loss, reflecting continued investment in Starship development.

Capital expenditures reached $18.4 billion in the quarter, of which $15.8 billion was directed at AI infrastructure. That level of spending, roughly 235% of quarterly revenue, drew the sharpest focus from investors. Management indicated capital spending would remain elevated at similar levels for at least the next two quarters as the company expands compute capacity, Starship production and next-generation Starlink satellites.

“2026 has been a momentous year so far, and the second quarter demonstrated the true power of SpaceX,” Chief Financial Officer Bret Johnsen said in the earnings release. “Revenue growth accelerated across all our business segments and we delivered strong operating leverage, with significant margin expansion led by our new AI compute agreements. Our unparalleled leadership in launch, Starlink subscriber growth, new enterprise and government partnerships, and best-in-class AI infrastructure underscore our ability to drive meaningful scale and deliver attractive returns.”

On the earnings call, Johnsen said the company had already signed an additional $6.7 billion in cloud services contracts in the early weeks of the third quarter and remained on track to reach a $100 billion annualized revenue run rate by the end of 2026, including expected contribution from the pending $60 billion acquisition of Cursor. He noted that new compute capital deployments were showing a payback period of less than one year.

Chief Executive Elon Musk described an accelerated timeline for long-term growth. Internal projections for reaching $1 trillion in annual revenue had moved forward to 2030 from 2031, with a non-zero chance of achieving the milestone as early as 2029. Musk said SpaceX expects to end 2026 with more than two gigawatts of compute capacity and closer to 10 gigawatts by the end of 2027, relying exclusively on Nvidia hardware for its data centers.

“We’re building AI compute capacity at scale faster than anyone else,” Musk said. On Starship, he stated: “With Starship, our aspirations, and I think we will achieve these aspirations, are to deliver well over 1 million tons to orbit per year, and probably ultimately 10 million tons per year.” He added that the $100 billion annualized revenue run rate target by December “is not a question mark. That’s what we would achieve if we basically did nothing.”

The company also highlighted two successful Starship Version 3 flight tests in the past 90 days, progress toward rapid reusability, the release of Grok 4.5, and more than $6 billion in multi-year U.S. government contracts for Starshield. Cloud services agreements signed in the period totaled $14.1 billion in contracted sales.

Despite the operational strength, investors focused on the capital intensity required to sustain the AI expansion and the near-term supply of shares from the lockup release. The partial unlock on August 6 involves shares held by employees and early investors and is separate from the main 180-day lockup that runs through December and a longer restriction on Musk’s holdings. Analysts and traders had flagged the event as a potential source of volatility in the weeks leading up to the earnings report.

Starlink average revenue per user declined year over year to $66, reflecting expansion into lower-priced international markets even as subscriber growth remained robust. The Space segment showed sequential improvement in revenue but continued to post operating losses tied largely to Starship research and development.

SpaceX completed its initial public offering in June at $135 per share, raising approximately $85.7 billion in net proceeds in what was described as the largest IPO in market history. The company also issued $25 billion in investment-grade senior notes later that month. The stock initially surged above $225 before giving back most of those gains amid concerns over valuation, capital intensity and the approaching unlock of restricted shares.

Wednesday’s decline left the shares below the IPO price and roughly halved from the post-IPO high. Short interest has remained elevated, and options activity showed a pronounced skew toward puts around the $100 and $110 strikes.

Management reiterated that the combination of Starlink cash generation, contracted AI compute demand and a strengthened balance sheet positions the company to fund its multi-year ambitions in launch, connectivity and artificial intelligence while maintaining long-term capital discipline. Investors will now watch the pace of share sales following the lockup release, the trajectory of free cash flow as capital spending continues at elevated levels, and evidence that the AI infrastructure investments are converting into the rapid payback periods management has described.

The first public earnings report delivered clear evidence of rapid top-line growth and expanding adjusted profitability in core areas, yet the market’s reaction underscored the high bar set by the company’s valuation and the scale of investment still required to realize the long-term targets Musk outlined.

Companies bidding for government contracts worth £5m or more will be scored on the jobs and training they create rather than on net zero, equality and diversity measures, under changes to the £90bn public procurement system announced by the Cabinet Office on Wednesday.

The weighting given to the wider benefits a bidder brings, known as social value, will double from 10 per cent to 20 per cent of the assessment for contracts at that level. The new 20 per cent score will be based on job creation, replacing the previous set of measures, which covered areas including equality and diversity, net zero and the post-Covid recovery.

Bidders will be given extra credit for creating local jobs that pay above the minimum wage, for training that plugs local skills gaps and, in particular, for offering 45-day work experience placements for young people.

The rules will apply to both British and international firms bidding for central government contracts and take effect from 1 January 2027, with detailed technical guidance due in the autumn, the Cabinet Office said.

The changes come as the government seeks to tackle youth unemployment, with the prime minister, Andy Burnham, saying he wants to create “growth in every postcode”. Burnham used a similar initiative during his time as mayor of Greater Manchester.

Figures from the Office for National Statistics show more than a million people aged 16 to 24 were not in education, employment or training in the first three months of 2026. The government has already appointed the former Marks & Spencer chief executive Marc Bolland to rally employers behind 300,000 work experience and training placements for young people.

First Secretary of State Louise Haigh, who is effectively Burnham’s deputy prime minister, said the procurement process in its current form was a “tick-box exercise”.

“Every pound of taxpayer money should be spent in a way that benefits local communities, creating good jobs and giving young people the skills they need for the future,” she said.

“These new rules will ensure the £90 billion that is spent each year through government contracts supports British jobs, skills and people in every postcode.”

Cabinet Office Minister Mark Ferguson said businesses that secure government contracts “have a responsibility to give back”.

“Businesses that benefit from the billions of taxpayer pounds spent by government, will have to create more local jobs and opportunities for young people in their area,” he said.

The Cabinet Office said the threshold for the requirements has been raised to contracts worth more than £1m, so that they do not typically apply to the work smaller firms and local social enterprises bid for. The change follows guidance issued last year urging public sector buyers to award more contracts to small businesses.

Craig Beaumont, executive director at the Federation of Small Businesses, said: “Lifting the threshold to £1 million ought to see many more small firms winning contracts, as small businesses deliver huge intrinsic social value but they can often struggle to demonstrate this in procurement processes.”

For major contracts, government departments will set a key performance indicator and publish annual progress reports measuring suppliers’ performance against their commitments, the Cabinet Office said.

Green groups criticised the plans. Ami McCarthy, head of politics at Greenpeace UK, said protecting the environment and helping young people into work are “mutually beneficial and one shouldn’t come at a cost to the other”.

“Companies should be held to account with environmental targets to help achieve a better future without leaving young workers behind,” they added.

Jamie Young

Jamie Young is Senior Reporter at Business Matters, covering SME finance, employment law and Westminster policy since 2016. He has reported on every Budget and Autumn Statement since 2018, helped make sense of the ‘covid era’ and the bounce-back loan scheme from launch through the fraud investigations, and broke the magazine’s coverage of the 2024 late-payment reforms. He joined Business Matters straight from completing his BA in Administration from Exeter University and is NCTJ-qualified. Reach him at jyoung@cbmeg.co.uk

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NEW YORK — Millions of players around the world turned to the New York Times Wordle on Thursday seeking the five-letter solution that has become a daily ritual for language enthusiasts and casual gamers alike. Puzzle number 1874, dated August 6, 2026, presented a straightforward yet tricky challenge that centered on a common verb associated with everyday dissatisfaction.

The answer is GRIPE. The word, which means to complain persistently or to express a minor grievance, fits the classic Wordle format of exactly five letters with no repeating characters. It contains two vowels — I and E — and begins with the consonant G while ending with the vowel E.

Wordle, created by software engineer Josh Wardle and later acquired by the New York Times, continues to draw a large global audience years after its initial surge in popularity. Players have six attempts to guess the hidden word, receiving color-coded feedback after each try: green for correct letters in the right position, yellow for correct letters in the wrong position, and gray for letters not present in the solution.

For those who prefer gradual assistance, several layers of hints were available before the full reveal. The word does not start with a vowel. It features five unique letters and zero duplicates. A basic definition describes it as a verb meaning to make a grab toward something or, more commonly in modern usage, to voice a petty complaint. Synonyms include complain, grumble, protest and criticize. One subtle clue pointed to a term often used when someone expresses ongoing annoyance about minor issues.

Players who began with common starting words such as those rich in vowels or frequent consonants found the path clearer once the initial G was identified. Subsequent guesses that tested combinations involving R, I, P and E quickly narrowed the possibilities. The absence of repeated letters eliminated several potential traps that have tripped up solvers in previous puzzles.

The difficulty of puzzle 1874 was generally rated as medium by tracking sites that aggregate player performance. Many solvers reported completing the challenge in three or four attempts once the starting letter became clear. The word’s everyday familiarity helped experienced players, while its relative simplicity offered a confidence boost for those still building streaks.

Wordle remains free to play on the New York Times Games platform and through its mobile applications. The daily reset occurs at midnight local time in each time zone, ensuring a fresh challenge for every region. Archive access allows players to review previous solutions, though the live daily puzzle is the primary draw for most participants.

Beyond the pure entertainment value, the game has become a shared social experience. Players frequently post their results using the distinctive grid of colored squares without revealing the answer itself, allowing friends and followers to compare performance without spoilers. Online communities discuss strategies ranging from optimal starting words to letter-frequency analysis.

For August 6, the combination of a familiar definition and a clean letter set made GRIPE accessible once the first letter locked in. Those who struggled early often benefited from testing common consonant-vowel patterns that appear in English vocabulary. The solution rewarded careful elimination of impossible combinations rather than random guessing.

The New York Times continues to maintain the original rules established at the game’s launch. Hard mode, which requires players to use previously revealed letters in subsequent guesses, remains an optional setting for those seeking greater challenge. Statistics tracking average guesses, win rates and streak lengths are available to registered users.

As the daily series progresses past the 1,800 mark, the puzzles continue to balance accessibility with occasional curveballs involving less common vocabulary or unusual letter placements. Thursday’s entry leaned toward the accessible end of the spectrum, giving many players a satisfying resolution before moving on to other New York Times Games offerings.

Players who solved the puzzle can now turn their attention to the next day’s challenge, which will appear at the usual reset time. For those who prefer to wait, the answer remains available for reference, though the community generally encourages attempting the puzzle unaided first.

The enduring appeal of Wordle lies in its simplicity and the shared daily moment it creates. On August 6, that moment centered on a five-letter expression of complaint that proved both recognizable and solvable for the majority of participants who engaged with the clues or persevered through systematic guessing.