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Crest made the gloomy statement as it announced its results for the six months to 30 April 2005. It also revealed it had been forced to pay 拢2.1m in professional fees while it was staving off the unwelcome advances of developer Heron International, which was interested in a takeover attempt.

John Calcutt, Crest鈥檚 chief executive, said: 鈥淲e won鈥檛 see a lot of growth this side of Christmas, but 2006 might be half decent, especially if interest rates fall.鈥�

He said that Heron鈥檚 interest in the company had caused little disruption to the business and that there was no lasting damage. 鈥淲e would rather not have paid 拢2.1m in fees but we had to have the best advice and that does not come cheap. It is a complete pain but we had to maximise shareholder value.鈥�

In the first half of the year, Crest made a pre-tax profit of 拢38m, up 6%, but this was before exceptional costs associated with Heron were taken into account. When this was included, pre-tax profit fell to 拢35.9m.

The number of affordable housing units completed by Crest was down 18% to 256, but Calcutt said that this was a result of the 鈥渓umpy鈥� nature of that sector and that there would be big increases next year.

Crest鈥檚 landbanks and agreed urban regeneration projects have a combined development value of 拢4.54bn. It is expecting to deliver about half of these schemes by 2008, which would be a 鈥渟ignificant income stream鈥�, according to the company.

Turnover rose 11% to 拢315.m and Crest recommended an interim dividend of 4.2p, up 5%. Shares in the company fell just 2p to 390p when the results were announced last Thursday, but they continued to fall this week.