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Banks will waive new lending arrangements with Barratt and Taylor Wimpey if they are in danger of being breached, according to senior financial sources.

Confirmation of the banks鈥� supportive stance comes as rescue talks continued this week between Taylor Wimpey and its lenders.

Informed sources tip the housebuilder to strike a similar deal to Barratt, whose interest cover arrangements were converted in July into deals linked to its ability to generate cash.

One senior financial source close to the situation said: 鈥淚f there is the danger of a fresh covenant breach at Barratt or Taylor Wimpey, the banks and the borrowers will sit down and rework those covenants to ensure no breach occurs.鈥�

Despite the leeway, the source said a breach was not currently on the cards at Barratt.

According to another source close to the talks, the attitude marks a change in the relationship between volume housebuilders and the banks. He said: 鈥淚f things get weaker in the future, what you will see is conversations being triggered, not covenant breaches.鈥�

Both Taylor Wimpey and Barratt have debt of about 拢1.7bn but the financial source said lenders had to take a realistic view given that they were not prepared to pull the plug and take on developments themselves.

He said: 鈥淵ou must be pragmatic in these circumstances and what you鈥檝e seen is a partnering ethos develop between banks and housebuilders. The banks are only likely to pull the plug if debt coverage ratios become so terrible that a fire sale of assets is the best way out.鈥�

One housebuilding analyst said: 鈥淚鈥檇 be astonished if new waivers were necessary given all the stress-testing that has gone on, but the banks would demand a heavy price if they were. That would be a higher return on their money or their money back quicker. They鈥檙e not known for giving something for nothing.鈥�