Build quality
Persimmon has regularly been criticised for the poor build quality of some of its homes.[44][45][46][47][48][49]
In 2008, a boy was killed by a falling mantelpiece. Persimmon, which sub-contracted company KD Childs to fit the fireplaces, had not checked the standards and had never received documents about how fireplaces were fitted. A mantelpiece had previously fallen at another Persimmon Home but was treated as a "one-off" incident.[50] Persimmon's build quality was the subject of a Channel 4 Dispatches documentary broadcast on 15 July 2019.[51][52] In August 2019, Persimmon appointed an independent team of construction quality inspectors to ensure its homes are built to required standards.[53]
In April 2019, Persimmon launched an independent review of customer care and quality of work following criticism. Persimmon had been ranked the lowest major housebuilder in the Home Builders Federation annual customer satisfaction survey.[54] The review, published in December 2019, criticised Persimmon for not having minimum construction standards, increasing the risk of build defects,[55] with a "systemic nationwide failure" of missing and/or incorrectly installed fire cavity barriers in its timber frame properties.[56][57] In March 2021, Persimmon CEO Dean Finch announced plans to double the firm's team of independent quality inspectors to over 60 by the end of 2021.[58]
In 2021, Persimmon built a block of properties the wrong way round in Colchester. The local authority required them to ensure the building was completed to the original designs submitted.[59]
Censorship
In 2019, Persimmon paid to take control of and then shut down a Facebook group, called Persimmon Homes Unhappy Customers, which detailed complaints about the company, and had almost 14,000 members.[60] The company defended deleting the group.[61]
Health and safety failure
In 2001, Persimmon was fined £125,000 after an employee was crushed to death. HSE investigating inspector Tony Mitchell said: "Companies need to ensure that all safety devices are fully operational. In this case properly fitted interlocks would have prevented access to the enclosure, and saved a life".[62]
Executive pay
In December 2017, Persimmon's chairman, Nicholas Wrigley, resigned over his role in awarding Jeff Fairburn, the CEO, a £128 million bonus.[63] The Persimmon bonus scheme was believed to be the UK's "most generous ever", scheduled to pay more than £800 million to 150 senior staff from 31 December 2016.[63]
In October 2018, Fairburn received widespread criticism after refusing to discuss the bonus awarded to him the previous year. When the bonus was awarded he said he would forgo half his shares: the final bonus which therefore was awarded £75 million. This was the largest bonus award by a listed UK company in history.[64] Fairburn has said he would give a "substantial proportion" of the bonus to charity; however no details of the charities were given (and no charitable involvement could be identified three years later).[65][66] He left the following month in a decision that the company described as being by "mutual agreement and at the request of the company".
Late payment
In April 2019, Persimmon Homes was suspended from the UK Government's Prompt Payment Code for failing to pay suppliers on time.[68] It was reinstated around 10 months later.[69]
Competition
In February 2024, Persimmon was among eight UK house-builders targeted by the Competition and Markets Authority in an investigation into suspected breaches of competition law. The CMA said it had evidence that firms shared commercially sensitive information with competitors, influencing the build-out of sites and the prices of new homes.[70] In January 2025, the CMA said it was conducting further investigations into the suspected anti-competitive conduct.[71] In June 2025, the CMA investigation was extended to August 2025.[72] In July 2025, the housebuilders offered to pay £100 million towards affordable housing programme as part of an agreement to reform practices on information sharing and to end the investigation without admitting any liability or wrongdoing.[73] On 30 October 2025, the CMA confirmed its investigation had been dropped in return for a £100 million payment towards affordable homes and other measures including the development of industry-wide guidance on information sharing and agreements not to share certain types of information with other housebuilders.[74]
