HOUSEBUILDER Bellway is confident that it will achieve record annual results for an eighth year in succession.

Encouraging trends in reservations have led to optimism at the company, which is based in Newcastle.

The upbeat comments come three months after it announced record profits for the past financial year of £169.3m and said forward sales were also at a record level.

Chairman Howard Dawe told the group's annual meeting that reservations since then had exceeded last year's levels in both value and number.

Bellway said in October that its reserve of plots with planning permission had increased by 5.7 per cent to 18,400 during the year.

The group focuses on affordable middle market properties and operates in most areas of the UK apart from North Wales and Lincolnshire.

It sold 6,278 homes last year, compared with 6,044 the previous year. Analysts forecast pre-tax profits for the year of £183m.