Vistry chief operating officer steps down after £165m blunder

The boss of Vistry has tightened his grip on the housebuilder in the wake of a huge profit warning by parting ways with his number two.
Greg Fitzgerald, Vistry’s chief executive and executive chairman, had already said that he wanted to “get closer to the coal face”. His comment came after last month’s warning that the developer had underestimated by £165 million how much it would cost to build out nine sites in the south of England. The debacle has seen Vistry’s share price more than halve in six weeks.
The FTSE 100 builder confirmed on Wednesday that it had decided to get rid of the role of chief operating officer, meaning that divisional heads now report straight to Fitzgerald rather than Earl Sibley.
“This change reduces the length of reporting lines and ensures closer proximity of the CEO to the business,” Vistry said in a statement. However, others suggested that the change would prompt further questions about Fitzgerald’s control over the business.
“It leaves too much power with one person,” one senior housebuilding executive said. “Believers will say that Greg is a god who can sort out [the issues]; doubters will say it removes another layer of scrutiny.”
• Vistry’s Greg Fitzgerald faces questions over ‘conflict of interest’
Sibley, who has been with Vistry since 2015, when it was still called Bovis Homes, has decided against staying on in a new, more limited role. He has stepped down from the board with immediate effect and will leave the business for good at the end of next month.
Fitzgerald said that Sibley, 52, would “leave with our very best wishes”. He added: “Earl has been an integral part of our operational and executive team and his leadership and contribution have been significant in helping to establish Vistry as a leading housebuilding and partnerships business. Having worked with Earl since I joined Bovis in 2017, I am very grateful for his dedication, support and hard work during his time with us.”
Vistry, which builds under the Bovis, Linden and Countryside brands, is one of Britain’s biggest residential developers. This year it expects to build 17,500 homes, the majority of which have already been bought by housing associations and institutional landlords such as Blackstone.
The switch to this “partnerships” model was made by Fitzgerald just over a year ago. In theory, it is a more resilient business because there is a guaranteed buyer which also funds the building works, meaning that Vistry can get on more sites more quickly.
The stock market initially lapped up the move, especially given that traditional builders were struggling with tepid demand from individuals whose affordability had been hamstrung by much higher mortgage rates.
However, the shares crashed last month after Vistry revealed its southern division’s costly miscalculation, which prompted Fitzgerald, 60, to offer his resignation, which was rejected by the board. The stock fell a further 43p, or 6.5 per cent, to 627p on Wednesday.