BBC News - Today - Profits boost for Barratt Barratt Developments, Britain's biggest housebuilder, has seen profits for the year rise 159% to £110m. Mark Clare, the group's chief executive told the Today programme's Simon Jack that "the most important ingredient to the improvement is the fact that we had committed to invest £1.5bn in new land and the benefit of that is now coming through. We've certainly taken advantage of the fact that land prices have fallen over the past few years.