Barratt has reportedly reduced its land-buying programme beyond its target of 拢1.2bn for the year to 30 June 2008.

The housebuilder gave the 拢1.2bn figure in a January trading update. This was itself a 拢300m reduction from an earlier target of 拢1.5bn.

An industry source said: 鈥淚t will be cutting back further. Barratt made the statement based on the assumption that market conditions would continue as they were. Clearly that hasn鈥檛 been the case.鈥�

According to another source, the company put a moratorium on land buying last November.

The company refused to comment on the speculation. A spokesman said: 鈥淲e鈥檝e been continuously tightening the criteria that we use to buy land.鈥�