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The story
In 1953, Lawrie Barratt, an accountant who was frustrated at the high purchase prices of houses for first-time buyers, bought five acres of land at Darras Hall, near Newcastle upon Tyne and built his own home on the site. Following this experience, he joined forces with Lewis Greensitt, a Newcastle builder, to establish a house building business, which was initially known as Greensitt Brothers, in 1958.
During 1968, the company was floated on the London Stock Exchange as Greensitt & Barratt, by which time the company was building 500 homes per year and the growth plan had been "fully achieved". Lewis Greensitt left shortly after the flotation and in 1973 the company was renamed Barratt Developments. Throughout the 1970s, Barratt completed a series of acquisitions, transforming the company from a local housebuilder to a national firm building around 10,000 houses per year, and rivalling George Wimpey in size. The largest of these acquisitions were the Manchester-based firm Arthur Wardle and the Luton-based Janes.
Central to Barratt's expansion was its high-profile marketing, with national advertising, featuring Patrick Allen and a helicopter. Barratt provided starter homes for the first-time buyer and offered part-exchange to those trading up. In the year to June 1983, Barratt sold a record 16,500 houses, making it by far the largest housebuilder in the country. In 1983 and 1984, Barratt was subject to two successive ITV World in Action programmes, the first criticising timber-framed housing and the latter, starter homes. Within two years, unit sales had more than halved. Lawrie Barratt led a total restructuring of the company, abandoning timber-framed construction, launching a new product range, and concentrating on the more profitable trade-up market. In the late 1980s, Margaret Thatcher famously purchased a house on one of Barratt's most upmarket estates, in Dulwich, London.
During the 1980s, the company established the Californian-based business Barratt American, which expanded outside of the state after positive performance during the early 1990s. In 2004, the company sold Barratt American via a management buyout in exchange for £91 million; at the time, it was Barratt's only overseas unit and management opted to focus on the UK market instead.
The company was heavily impacted by the early 1990s recession. Barratt's fiscal circumstances led to Lawrie Barratt being recalled from retirement. The company promptly reoriented towards first time buyers and increased production. Lawrie retired for good in 1997 and remained life president of the firm until his death in December 2012.
There was a lengthy housing boom in the late 1990s and early 2000s, which saw a number of Barratt's largest rivals, such as Persimmon, George Wimpey and Taylor Woodrow all acquire rivals to increase in size. Likewise, in 2007, Barratt broke its tradition of 30 years and acquired Wilson Bowden, best known for its David Wilson Homes brand, in exchange for £2.7 billion; the move made Barratt the biggest homebuilder in Britain, employing roughly 7,500 people at the time of the acquisition. thus bringing the David Wilson, Ward Homes and Wilson Bowden Developments brands to the group; Barratt decided to retain the Wilson Bowden name for some activities.
In August 2008, amid the economic effects of the Great Recession and reports that Barratt was in jeopardy of breaking its banking covenants, the firm successfully restructured its arrangements. During early 2009, it reported a write-off of nearly £600 million along with 700 job losses. In November 2019, Barrett announced that it had completed its refinancing and was actively seeking to open new sites once again.
During the early 2010s, the firm entered into numerous partnerships with other companies. During 2012, the Barratt Residential Asset Management division was established to provide property management services on a non-profit basis across Barratt London developments. In March 2019, it was announced that Barratt Residential Asset Management had been acquired by FirstPort; as a result of the deal, the 11,000 Barratt London homes that it managed were transferred over to FirstPort.
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In late 2017, Barratt withdrew from a development deal with Enfield Council valued at £6 billion after the local authority had dismissed its terms. During June 2019, Barratt acquired Oregon Timber Frame, one of the UK's largest timber frame manufacturers and a key supplier to Barratt.
During 2020, Barratt Developments set science-based carbon reduction targets as well as making a commitment to build zero carbon homes from 2030 and become a net zero business by 2040. Examples of sustainable developments include the Energy House 2.0, Green House at the BRE Innovation Park, Hanham Hall near Bristol, Derwenthorpe, near York and Kingsbrook, near Aylesbury. Another goal of the firm's emphasis on the adoption of modern methods of construction was to reduce the need for skilled labour.
As of 2024, Barratt Developments had achieved a 5 star rating in the Home Builders Federation new home Customer Satisfaction Survey for 15 consecutive years. In the 2024 NHBC Pride in the Job awards for site managers, Barratt site managers won 89 Quality Awards.
Barratt Redrow
On 7 February 2024, the company made an agreed offer to acquire Redrow for £2.5 billion. On the same date, both firms had confirmed reduced revenue and profit. The merged businesses would create a house builder, Barratt Redrow, turning over £7.45 billion and delivering over 22,600 homes a year. Subject to regulatory and shareholder approval, the deal was expected to be completed in the second quarter of 2024. The deal would see around 800 jobs lost and nine offices close. In March 2024, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) opened an investigation into the proposed acquisition, assessing if it might "result in a substantial lessening of competition within any market or markets in the United Kingdom for goods or services." In May 2024, the proposed merger was approved by shareholders, but the deal remained subject to CMA clearance. In August 2024, the CMA said the proposed deal raised competition concerns only in one specific part of the country: north Shropshire. Barratt and Redrow could make submissions to address the CMA's concerns about that area, to avoid the deal being subject to an in-depth phase two review. On 22 August 2024, Barratt officially took ownership of Redrow shares, but both firms would continue to operate independently until granting of final CMA approval. On 7 October 2024, after the CMA investigation was closed, the company became Barratt Redrow plc.
Also in February 2024, Barratt and Redrow were among eight UK housebuilders targeted by the CMA in an investigation into suspected breaches of competition law. The CMA said it had evidence that firms shared commercially sensitive information with competitors, influencing the build-out of sites and the prices of new homes. In January 2025, the CMA said it was conducting further investigations into suspected anti-competitive conduct by house-builders; after Barratt acquired Redrow, the number of companies under investigation reduced from eight to seven. In June 2025, the CMA investigation was extended to August 2025. In July 2025, the housebuilders offered to pay £100 million towards affordable housing programmes as part of an agreement to reform practices on information sharing and end the investigation without admitting any liability or wrongdoing. On 30 October 2025, the CMA confirmed its investigation had been dropped in return for a £100m payment towards affordable homes and other measures including the development of industry-wide guidance on information sharing and agreements not to share certain types of information with other housebuilders.
In September 2024, prior to final CMA authorisation of Barratt's Redrow acquisition, Barratt was overtaken by Vistry as Britain's biggest housebuilder, after it forecast it would deliver more than 18,000 homes (later revised downwards to 17,500), surpassing Barratt's 14,000. In April 2025, it was announced that Redrow CEO Matthew Pratt would step down in June 2025; Barratt Redrow said five of nine planned divisional office closures had been completed following the merger. The company aimed to eventually operate 32 UK divisions and complete 22,000 homes a year.
In the year to 29 June 2025, Barratt Redrow reported a pre-tax profit of £273.7m on revenue of £5.6bn. It said it was on track to make post-merger cost savings of £100m, with six divisional offices now closed and three to close, as it created 32 UK divisions.
In December 2025, the company announced its chief financial officer, Mike Scott, had resigned from the company. In March 2026, Barratt Redrow appointed Dean Banks as its next CEO; Banks will join the group from Australian infrastructure specialist Ventia in late 2026.
In a July 2026 trading update, Barratt Redrow announced the completion of 17,667 homes in its 2026 financial year, said profits before tax were in line with expectations, and proposed to return £400m to shareholders through a share buyback programme. In September 2026, Barratt Redrow reported revenues of £6.05bn and a statutory pre-tax profit of £364m. It also announced an additional provision of £97m relating to legacy building defects.
From Wikipedia’s article on Barratt Redrow, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.3