Barratt Developments contributes more than £245m to Scottish economy

Despite the challenges of the past year, Barratt Developments Scotland has made a substantial contribution of £245 million to the UK economy and supported hundreds of other organisations in the supply chain.

Barratt Developments contributes more than £245m to Scottish economy

Douglas McLeod, regional managing director for Barratt Developments Scotland

In the year ending 30 June 2020, Barratt Developments Scotland has also completed 1,340 new homes and supported 3,886 direct, indirect and induced jobs across its North, East and West Scotland divisions.

As the largest UK housebuilder, and one of the most sustainable, Barratt continues to safeguard the environment by creating nearly 23ha of green space with public spaces and private gardens.

Barratt is working towards reducing its direct carbon emissions by 29% by 2025 and indirect emissions by 24% per square metre by 2030. In the past year, CO2e emissions per 100m.sq. of completed build area fell to 3.14t. Across the business, 96% of construction waste was also saved from landfill and 26% of new homes were built on previously developed land.

Douglas McLeod, regional managing director for Barratt Developments Scotland, said: “As the UK’s largest housebuilder, we’re acutely aware of – and committed to – our responsibilities in creating sustainable communities, promoting responsible consumption and generating strong economic growth. Despite the challenges of 2020, we’re proud to have delivered over 1,300 new homes to Scottish buyers and boosted the economy by £245m.”

As part of its housebuilding activity, Barratt has made £5.4m in local contributions to help build new facilities and community infrastructure. This contribution includes the provision of 281 new school places. More than £27m has also been spent on physical works within communities, such as highways, environmental improvements and community facilities – an increase of 12.5% from the year previous.

Barratt Developments contributes more than £245m to Scottish economy

Other key findings from the Barratt Developments Scotland 2020 socio-economic report include:

  • Increased support for public services with £81m in generated tax revenues.
  • Over £278,000 donated to local charitable and community causes.
  • 650 supplier and 720 sub-contractor companies supported.
  • Increased support for the UK supply chain with 90% of all components centrally procured, assembled or manufactured in-country.
  • More than £23m in retail spending by new residents, helping support 240 retail and service-related jobs.

The development of new and future talent remains a key priority for Barratt Developments Scotland and 56 graduates, apprentices and trainees launched their careers with the company in 2020, an increase from 50 in the previous year.

Mr McLeod continued: “Creating long-term employment opportunities is key to economic success. In addition to repaying all furlough money to the government, last year we also continued to on-board new apprentices. We will do so again this year, and apprentices that are graduating this year will also continue their careers with us.”

The assessment of Barratt Developments’ performance was carried out by independent consultants Lichfields, which analysed socio-economic impacts through the delivery chain for new housing based on Barratt datasets, published research and national statistics.

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