Persimmon says election disrupting planning for builders

LONDON, April 16 (Reuters) - British housebuilder Persimmon said the upcoming national election was making it more difficult to win planning permission for new developments.

The company, however, said house buyers remained confident, reflecting an ongoing improvement in the economy and good deals in the mortgage market.

"As anticipated, in line with past experience it has become increasingly difficult to secure planning consents for sites as May's General Election approaches," the company said in a trading update on Thursday.

"While we would expect such delays to be short term in nature, they are hindering the expansion in the number of active outlets required by the housebuilding industry to support an increase in the volume of newly built homes delivered to the market."

The company said it had strong sales in the first 15 weeks of the year, resulting in a 7 percent rise in total forward sales revenue to 2 billion pounds. (Reporting by Paul Sandle; editing by Kate Holton)