Barratt starts recruitment freeze and slows land approvals

Britain’s biggest house builder has instituted a recruitment freeze and slowed further new site openings in the face of falling demand for homes.
In a trading update for the first six months, chief executive David Thomas said that the first half of the financial year had seen a marked slowdown in the UK housing market prompting stricter controls on spending.He said: “Political and economic uncertainty impacted the first quarter; this was then compounded by rapid and significant chang