The way the bosses of the two companies told it, Barratt Developments’ proposed £2.5bn takeover of smaller rival Redrow was “a compelling opportunity” to do lots of virtuous things, such as increase the supply of new homes in the UK and give customers more choice.
That, at least, is what they’ll be telling the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), which may yet have something to say about the UK’s biggest housebuilder by volume buying the sixth largest. More consolidation at the top of the industry hardly seems likely to offer much encouragement to smaller developers who built 39% of new homes back in 1988 but these days do about one in 10.
