Kent's £10million redevelopment plan for their St Lawrence headquarters in Canterbury looks set to continue this summer despite news that Persimmon Homes plc - the club's preferred construction partner - has called a halt to developing new sites.

The country's largest housebuilder has suffered a 24 per cent drop in sales so far this year while its sales revenue forecast for the year has dropped to £1.37billion, compared to buoyant figures of £1.8billion for 2007.

Though the spokesman for Persimmon Homes (South-East) was unavailable for comment on Friday, it is believed Persimmon already consider the St Lawrence project - where they plan to build more than 70 new homes - an ongoing scheme.

Kent chief executive Paul Millman said: "As far as we are concerned this development is already in progress, it's not a brand new build starting from scratch as such.

"Other than that I don't have a lot to say as I have all the assurances I need. From our perspective the business carries on."

In a statement to Persimmon plc shareholders ahead of the group's annual meeting at York Racecourse on Thursday, group chairman John White said: "When we announced our results for the year ended 31st December 2007 we commented that purchasers were applying a 'wait and see' approach to house purchases.

"Because of the uncertainties of the global economy and the UK lending environment it is difficult to predict when the market will improve.

"We are therefore focusing on management of cash flows within the business to ensure that our balance sheet strength is maintained.

"Close control of investments in work in progress, land, build costs and overheads are a priority for our experienced management teams. We are currently operating off circa five per cent more sites than a year ago.

"Against the current backdrop we have postponed the commencement of scheduled new sites until the mortgage market improves."