Barratt cool over stamp duty

BRITAIN'S biggest housebuilder Barratt Developments poured cold water on the Government's recent doubling of the stamp duty threshold to £120,000 to help first time homebuyers.

Delivering forecast-busting half-year figures, chief executive David Pretty said: 'Anything that helps first-time buyers is good news, but it is not going to help people in the South East. There are not many new homes nationally under £120,000, though it will help first-time buyers in the North and Scotland.'

Pretty said he was sticking with predictions first made nine months ago of rises of up to 4% in house prices this year after 'encouraging' sales activity since 1 January.

His comments coincided with Barratt revealing it is one of three winning firms to build 4,000 new London homes, half of which are for key workers on brownfield land obtained via the Government's land quango, English Partnerships.

Barratt is working on 1,000 homes, starting with 150 in Wandsworth and 450 in Leamouth in docklands to complete in around two years.

The forward order book stands at £1bn, and with completions to date Barratt is 90% towards its full-year sales target of 14,500 new homes by 30 June. Pre-tax profits to 31 December surged 20% to £171.1m, £15m above market forecasts on a 5% rise in turnover to £1.092bn.