Barratt cuts its developments

HOUSEBUILDER Barratt Developments is expecting its number of sites to decline as it responds to a "significant" deterioration in market conditions.

The group, which has a number of developments across the Lothians, said new projects were only being started on a highly selective basis, where it had clear visibility of demand and work could be tightly controlled.

In a trading update, Barratt said its forward order book currently stood at around £1.56 billion, compared with £2.1bn a year earlier.

It said it was seeing greater pricing pressure across all regions and that sales incentives were being required to stimulate demand.

Barratt dropped out of the FTSE 100 Index in December as its shares were hit by the credit crunch.