Housebuilder Barratt has seen the estimated bill for the cost of assisting with remedial cladding work on its developments increase to £15.6m.
The firm revealed in its half-year results for the six months to 31 December 2020 that it had identified another £4.4m in cladding related costs, on top of the £11.4m it had already set aside by 1 July 2020.
Barratt has undertaken a review of all of its current and legacy buildings where it has used cladding and said it was continuing to assess the action required in line with the latest government guidance applied to multi-storey and multi-occupied residential buildings.
It added that all of the buildings where cladding was used were signed off by approved inspectors and were compliant with Building Regulations at the time of completion.
Separately, it has set aside £66.2m for remedial action related to reinforced concrete frames on its developments. In July 2020, Barratt announced that it would pay for work required on the reinforced concrete frame at the Citiscape development in Croydon, south London as well as undertaking a review of 26 other developments where RC frames were designed by Barratt or the same original engineering firm.
Barratt said its investigation was “substantially complete” and that it had not identified any other buildings with issues as severe as those present at Citiscape.
The news came as Barratt unveiled a 10.1% rise in revenue for the half-year to 31 December 2020 to £2.5bn, up from £2.3bn in the same period the year before. Pre-tax profit increased 1.7% to £430.2m.
During the half-year to 31 December 2020, Barratt completed 9,077 homes, a 9.2% increase on the 8.314 it completed in the same period the year before.
David Thomas, chief executive of Barratt Developments, said: "Our first priority remains keeping our colleagues and customers safe. Our customers are at the heart of everything we do and I would like to say a huge thank you to all of our employees and sub-contractors who have continued to deliver great quality homes and excellent customer service throughout these challenging times. We have achieved a fantastic first half performance, with a strong rebound in completion volumes and good progress towards our medium term targets.
“We have also made a solid start to the second half and are now over 95% forward sold for our financial year. Whilst we are mindful of the continued economic uncertainties, the housing market fundamentals remain attractive and our outlook for the full year remains in line with expectations."
