The company said pre-tax profit had fallen by 46% to £492m for the year to 30th June 2020 (2019: £909.8m), while revenue was down 28% to £3,419m (2019: £4,763m) as housing completions fell from 17,856 to 12,604.

COVID-19-related costs came to £74.3m, comprising £45.2m of safety costs, non-productive site costs and site-based employee costs and £29.1m related to an (expected) increase in site durations.

Barratt also booked legacy properties costs of £39.9m relating to recladding work and decided in July to repay £26m in furlough grants from the UK Government.

Chief executive David Thomas said: “While COVID-19 has had a significant impact on our results, our priority has been to keep our people safe, mitigate the effect of the pandemic on our business and be able to emerge from the crisis in a resilient position. Although uncertainties remain, all of our sites are operational, we are seeing very strong consumer demand and our robust financial position means we enter the new financial year with cautious optimism.

“We are now renewing our focus on our medium-term targets, on leading the industry in quality and service and on supporting jobs and economic growth by building the homes the country needs.”

“We continue to develop, trial and implement MMC,” said he added. “In 2020 we constructed 2,652 homes (21% of our home completions) using MMC including timber frame, large format block and offsite manufactured ground floor solutions and roof cassettes. Our target is to use MMC in the construction of 25% of our homes by 2025.”

Mr Thomas continued: “Timber frame construction is a sustainable, low energy method of build and is assembled in factories to high standards. Over the last three years, we have built 6,035 homes using timber frame, the majority in Scotland. We are also increasing its use across England and Wales. Last year, we acquired Oregon, a UK manufacturer of timber frames. Oregon, which was already one of our key timber frame suppliers providing high quality products and excellent customer service, has continued to expand and has opened an additional factory as we look to expand further our use of timber frame.”