What a difference a year makes.

Last June George Wimpey and Taylor Woodrow completed the deal that created Taylor Wimpey, a £4.8 billion housebuilding giant, propelling the group into the FTSE 100. Peter Redfern, chief executive of George Wimpey, took the same role at the new company.

But this week he may become the first head of a housebuilder to be forced into taking a cash injection of as much as £500 million from its leading investors to keep the company afloat.

Taylor Wimpey, like other housebuilders, has been battered by the credit crunch, which has made it harder to sell houses and also put downward pressure on prices. UBS is understood to be co-ordinating a placing with the group's largest shareholders, such as Standard Life, Legal & General and Alliance Bernstein, who are keen on the plan but yet to agree a price.

Mr Redfern is likely to be the bearer of more bad news on Wednesday, when the company posts a trading update. It could include a writedown on the value of its land bank and a profit warning.

The group has moved to address its cost base and said that it would close 13 of its 39 UK offices, cutting up to 600 jobs. It has also asked suppliers to reduce their bills.

Mr Redfern, a 37-year-old maths graduate from Warwick University with an accountancy background, may have a head for numbers, but few this week will make good reading.

The company, now worth only £654 million, is struggling with its most difficult trading conditions since the early 1990s, and this is taking its toll on Mr Redfern.

Colleagues say that his waistline has expanded and the bags under his eyes have darkened over the past year as he copes with endless transatlantic travel to deal with the struggling businesses in the United States and drives around Britain to visit each of the company's sites.

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