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The country鈥檚 biggest housebuilder produced just 144 more homes in the last six months of 2017 than it did in the same period the year before despite a government push to address the current housing crisis.

In a trading update for the six months to December 2017, Barratt revealed it had completed 7,324 homes in that time, compared to 7,180 completions for the same period the year prior.

The firm built just eight more affordable homes in the last six months of 2017, compared to the same six months the year before.

The update was issued ahead of the release of Barratt鈥檚 interim results on 21 February.

But the company鈥檚 strong land purchasing programme has it positioned for further increases in completions moving forward.

The firm revealed it has 拢641.2m of land approved for purchase, compared to 拢328.2m in the same period in 2016.

This equated to 51 sites, up from 39 in 2016, and 13,263 plots compared to 5,262 plots the previous year. The firm confirmed plans to approve more than 20,000 plots in FY18 as a whole. 

Due to the extensive land purchases, as well as the payment of 拢348m (2016: 拢248m) of dividends in November, the company鈥檚 net cash fell from 拢196.7m in December 2016 to around 拢165m.

David Thomas (pictured), chief executive at Barratt Developments, said: 鈥淲e have delivered a strong performance in the first half, underpinned by our focus on quality, design and industry-leading customer service. 

鈥淎s the UK鈥檚 largest housebuilder we remain firmly committed to helping address the housing shortage whilst delivering excellent operational and financial performance.鈥�

The firm said the average selling price on completions was up 6.5% to 拢281,000 with its forward order book standing at 拢2.4bn at the end of 2017, a rise of 2% on last time.