PLANS to build more than 80 homes in the city will not be

affected by the cash problems currently hitting one of the

country's biggest developers, it has been claimed.

George Wimpey insists it is still on course to build 84

homes at Crossmead, in Cowick, despite the financial problems

of its parent company Taylor Wimpey.

Earlier this week, Taylor Wimpey confirmed it was axing 900

jobs and closing 13 regional offices. The Exeter office of

George Wimpey, in Osprey Road, Sowton, is not included in the

planned closures.

The parent company is also in the process of trying to raise

a reported £500m to help shore up its finances.

The reassurances about the future of the Crossmead

development came after the housebuilder hinted that the scheme

could be in jeopardy if the downturn continued.

But a spokeswoman for George Wimpey Homes yesterday insisted

that developments with approval in the region would go ahead

and said: “There has not been any slowing of activity in the

Devon and Cornwall region, unlike other parts of the

country.”

Last month, George Wimpey held a two-day public exhibition

to give people the opportunity to find out about plans for the

land, which was previously owned by the University of

Exeter.

At the time, Taylor Wimpey officials said they wanted to

move forward with plans for the site before the mortgage market

tightened any further.

The scheme would contain 32 houses in 52 apartments, with 30

per cent of the properties being classed as affordable.

The slowing housing market has already taken its toll on a

homes developer in the city. Redrow Homes closed Redrow House,

its Exeter Business Park office, in March.

Five people were made redundant and five more were

redeployed to Bristol.

Persimmon Homes has also scaled down its operations until

conditions in the housing market improve. But projects that the

developer has on its books in Exeter, including the 398 homes

on the Royal Naval Storage Depot site off Topsham Road and 99

houses on land north of Beacon Avenue, will go ahead.