AGM Statement

Barratt Developments PLC
17 November 2005



Thursday 17 November 2005

                            Barratt Developments PLC
                                 AGM Statement

Barratt Developments PLC will be holding its Annual General Meeting at 2.30pm
today. At the meeting Charles Toner, Group Chairman, will make the following
statement:-

Once again, I am pleased to have the opportunity to comment on our results for
the year ended 30 June 2005 and to update you on current trading conditions and
on our prospects for the current financial year.

The Group faced challenging market conditions throughout the last financial year
but, nevertheless, produced record results and our 13th consecutive year of
organic growth. We completed 14,351 homes throughout Britain, including our
300,000th home since the company was founded in 1958. Over 11,700 (82%) of these
homes were built on brownfield sites and for the third year this was more in
total and more on brownfield sites than any other housebuilder, firmly
maintaining our position as Britain's leading urban regenerator. We also
reinforced our leading position in the provision of social housing. All of this
enabled us to increase UK housebuild turnover by 6% to £2.472 billion which,
together with an improvement in UK housebuild margin, to 16%, helped raise
pre-tax profit by 11% to £406.6m and also earnings per share by 11%. We also
strengthened our financial position with cash in hand at the year-end of £276.9
million compared to £189.7 million cash in hand last year. The latter, of
course, was aided by the £85m net proceeds from the sale of our small Southern
California operation. Return on Capital at 31% remains one of the highest in the
industry.

Our wide geographic spread, diverse product range covering all market sectors,
and affordable average selling price, helped generate healthy forward sales of
£774m which provided another good start to the new financial year. We remained
prudent in the land market throughout the year but, nonetheless, our land
acquisition and planning skills enabled us to acquire over 19,000 plots, 33%
more than we used. This increased our total land bank, including plots agreed
subject to contract, to over 61,000 plots, equal to 4.25 years supply. We
secured planning approvals for 16,400 new homes, 6% more than last year, and
have all the necessary planning approvals for this year's production. This will
increase outlets and help mitigate the effects of a more moderate market.

We have unrivalled experience in brownfield development and social housing
partnerships. We remain, therefore, very well placed to contribute to, and
benefit from, the Government's ongoing emphasis on urban regeneration and the
increased priority for social housing. Recently, English Partnerships, the
national regeneration agency, appointed Barratt in consortium with others, to
deliver one of England's largest new communities in Telford. Barratt's
contribution will exceed 1,100 new homes, with construction starting next
Summer. We have also just been selected, with our partner Artisan, as preferred
developer for in excess of 1,000 new homes under the East Central Rochdale
regeneration scheme. These follow our recent selection to build 2,000 homes at
West Hendon in partnership with the Metropolitan Housing Trust and the London
Borough of Barnet. We are also pleased to confirm that in the past two weeks we 
have been selected to develop two key sites in the Government's Design for 
Manufacture competition. These will provide over 300 new homes in Leeds and 
Northampton, mostly using modern methods of construction.

We have further developed our Corporate Responsibility Strategy across all areas
of the business, improving our Insight Investments/WWF sustainability rating
dramatically from 31% to 69% and achieving the international Environmental
Management standard in six divisions, with a further eight targeted in this
year. The continued focus of senior management on Health and Safety has further
improved standards across the Group, enabling me to report that, for the third
year in a row, our Health and Safety performance was ahead of the NHBC national
housebuilder average. We will, however, continue to identify areas for further
improvement.

Likewise, improving customer care and product quality is important to us and
good progress has been made. In August we launched our new Customer Charter
setting out the standards of quality and service we must provide to our
customers. We are also developing a Personal Code of Practice for staff,
suppliers and sub-contractors to support the Charter.

Our construction teams produced an excellent performance, winning 51 NHBC
quality awards, a new record. The Group also won more Greenleaf environmental
awards than any other housebuilder for the fourth year running and, in the
prestigious 'Building' awards, we were voted 'Major Housebuilder of the Year'.
The Group also did well in the Daily Express 'British Housebuilder' awards, with
KingsOak securing 'Best National Builder 2005'.

This good all round performance and robust results reflect the continued success
of our organic growth strategy and the fundamental strengths of our Company.

I have two Group Board changes to announce.

Firstly, I would like to take this opportunity to thank Peter Ashworth who
retires from the Board at the close of this meeting. Peter has been a
Non-Executive Director since 1997 and my Board colleagues join me in thanking
him for his contribution to the Group during a period of enormous progress. We
wish him the very best for the future.

I would also publicly welcome Bill Shannon who joined the Board as a
Non-Executive Director in September. Bill had a long career with Whitbread PLC,
serving as an Executive Director for ten years until 2004. He also currently
serves as Non-Executive Director of Aegon UK PLC and Matalan and brings with him
a wealth of experience in the business sector.

New Structure for Growth

Our organic growth strategy has been successful for thirteen consecutive years.
However, to ensure that Barratt remains at the forefront of the sector the Board
is restructuring the executive team to deliver its strategy for future growth.
With effect from January 2006, a streamlined executive structure will be
introduced with three of our Group Board executive directors, Steven Boyes,
Clive Fenton and Geoff Hester, promoted to more strategic executive roles. In
this capacity they will report to the Group Board as the respective heads of our
extended and redefined Barratt North and Barratt South operating areas and of
our expanding KingsOak operation. As a result, at regional executive level three
of our highest calibre divisional managing directors are to be promoted to
Regional Chairmen.

Harold Walker will continue to serve as Deputy Chief Executive until his
retirement on 30 June 2006. Paul Gieron will stand down from his Group Board
role in January 2006 to become Regional Chairman of the Barratt West Region.
This new structure will preserve the current emphasis on operational performance
whilst at the same time enabling the Executive Directors on the Group Board to
focus on the delivery of our longer-term business objectives.

This new streamlined executive structure will drive the business forward and the
promotion of some of our most successful and youngest divisional managing
directors will assist this process. It also provides vital career development
opportunities for the next generation of executive management.

Outlook

The short term economic outlook remains unclear and it is too early to assess
the market for the rest of our financial year. We have made further sales
progress in this new financial year and forward sales now stand at £900m which,
together with completions to date, secures over 60% of our full year
requirement. We are operating on the assumption that the market will remain
challenging but are targeting to maintain volumes and are currently achieving
sales levels sufficient for us to secure our objectives. However, should the
market improve, we have the land, planning and capacity to respond and increase
volume.

The underlying fundamentals of the housing market remain sound, further
supported by the serious delays within the planning system. In the medium and
longer term there will be many growth opportunities for us and our long term
growth strategy remains unchanged. This strategy will, naturally, be adapted to
market conditions but we are well placed to continue our progress with good
forward sales, a high quality land bank, full geographic coverage and a wide
product range. Our financial position is strong and this, together with our
proven marketing skills, increasing outlets, our urban regeneration and social
housing expertise, ensures we are well positioned for the future.


Charles Toner
Chairman                                                        


For further information please contact:

Chris Lynch/ Terry Garrett
Weber Shandwick Square Mile                                        020 7067 0700








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