Barratt Developments to cut 1,000 jobs

Barratt Developments has announced it is in consultation with staff over the potential of large scale job losses at the company.

It is thought up to 1,000 staff could be in danger of unemployment - from a workforce of 6,700.

A 30-day consultation period with members of staff has been initiated, with the exact number of redundancies expected to be named following the completion of this process.

The company has struggled in recent months as the property market has tumbled.

New-starts on new-build residential homes are now at their lowest level since 1945, according to Construction Products Association (CPA).

Barratt has also been saddled with up to £1.7 billion worth of debt, following the acquisition of Wilson Bowden for circa £2.2bn in April 2007.

Earlier this week Taylor Wimpey – a close competitor of Barratt and the UK's biggest housebuilder – announced it was to cut 900 jobs, following a "significant downturn in the market."

Construction group Galliford Try is also axing 256 posts in its housebuilding division in response to the weaker property market.

Furthermore, residential and commercial developer Ballymore said it was cutting 50 jobs - more than ten per cent of its workforce - as part of a management shake-up.

Stock in all housebuilders has seen sharp deteriorations over the course of the last year.

While shares in Barratt were trading for as little as 42.5 per pence at 10:58 BST, a year ago they were worth as much as 1,200 pence.

Chris O'Toole