The company, whose net debt is £1.7bn, said in a statement that the maturity on all its existing debt would be extended where necessary with all of it now due on July 3 2012 or later.

Its £1.65bn pound revolving credit facility will be cut by £235m. A further reduction of £150m  by June 30 2009 is also scheduled while a 350 million pound cut in the level of facilities is due the following June.

Current conditions relating to earnings and gearing levels have been removed and replaced with covenants requiring the company to maintain a minimum net operating cash flow, minimum consolidated tangible net worth and asset leverage cover.

There will also be an annual cap on how much new land the company can buy.