Building company Persimmon is attempting to create the UK's largest housebuilding company with a £537 million takeover offer for rival firm Beazer.

The cash-and-share offer is the latest in a round of moves within the sector after Taylor Woodrow agreed a £535 million deal for Bryant on Monday.

Beazer itself became a takeover target after its proposed "merger of equals" with Bryant fell through.

If Beazer agrees to the Persimmon offer, the tie-up would create a company with a turnover of about £1.6 billion and an operating profit of £209 million.

The two companies would also boast the UK's largest landbank of about 58,000 plots and a portfolio of some 19,000 acres.

Persimmon said it was attracted to Beazer, which is best known for its Charles Church brand, by the opportunity to penetrate markets in the West Midlands, Essex and Cumbria.

But Persimmon chief executive John White said there would be job losses as the new company reduced its number of offices from 36 to 24.

He said: "There are a number of examples where we have offices in the same town and operating at less than optimum levels.

"We have watched how Beazer ran Charles Church and we think that more could have been done with it. We are very keen to increase that brand and to roll it out further across the South and even into the North."

While sales at the Charles Church division would increase, Persimmon said it intended to reduced the Beazer portfolio to create a group with combined sales of about 13,000 units a year.

A slight reduction in the company's land bank would enable the new company to cut its debt by about £175 million, Persimmon added.