Barratt rides housing market recovery Barratt said revenues in the year to the end of June had grown 12.2pc to £2.6bn, driving a 74pc increase in pre-tax profits to £192.3m. Trading has been even stronger in the weeks since, the company said, with house reservations per active site up by 24pc compared to the same period last year and forward sales to households increasing by 44pc. Britain's two other biggest housebuilders, Taylor Wimpey and Persimmon, have seen similar effects from a recovering market, driven partially by Help to Buy. Taylor Wimpey posted a 42pc increase in half-year profit before tax in July, and last month Persimmon said profits had risen 38pc in the first six months of 2013. The companies" share prices have risen by between 25pc and 33pc since the Chancellor announced the scheme, as analysts have grown increasingly bullish about prospects for the sector. Mr Clare said that Barratt had "started to see the positive benefit" of Help to Buy, but insisted that it was not causing out of control house price inflation. Responding to claims from Business Secretary Vince Cable that the scheme is creating a bubble, Mr Clare insisted that recent price rises were by no means indications of a bubble and were distinct from the effects of Help to Buy, which he said had been much more effective outside of London and the South East where houses are cheaper. "It's premature to blame Help to Buy [for rising prices], if you look at the data we are seeing some improvements in terms of pricing, but outside of London and the South East prices are still relatively flat," Mr Clare said. I don't believe it's having the effect that some people are suggesting. We are seeing a broader recovery in terms of customer interest but we have got to recognise that the housing market is only coming out of the downturn, prices are 10 to 15pc below their peak even if you take out inflation. Mr Clare said that since Help to Buy only currently applies to new homes - a relatively small part of the housing market - it could not be held responsible for rising prices, but said that the scheme had given housebuilders the confidence to invest in more land on which to build. Barratt said it had sped up its land-buying programme, and that it had bought 18,536 plots of land in its financial year, at a cost of £1.05bn, against 12,085 plots in the previous year. "Help to Buy is opening up the deposit-constrained markets outside of London, if people have access [to mortgages] then affordability will be good outside of London and the South East," said Anthony Codling, an analyst at Jefferies. He said that the scheme was a "very effective stimulus" for housebuilders Despite Barratt's results being relatively in line with market expectations, shares in the company fell 15.2 to 317.1p. This was attributed to a bout of profit taking following a strong run in the last year, as well as fears that mortgage approvals will slow as prospective buyers await the second stage of Help to Buy, which starts in January.