Barratt suspends London boss

Barratt Developments has suspended Alastair Baird, its regional managing director for London, after Baird, along with one other former Barratt London employee, was arrested.

The arrests follow a referral in April 2016 by Barratt to the police of initial findings of an internal investigation. The investigation commenced in August 2015 following an internal audit and relates to possible misconduct in the process for awarding and managing material and subcontract supply contracts in the London region. The investigation also led to civil legal action which commenced in October 2015 against an employee who was dismissed in February 2016.

Following the initial findings of the internal investigation, Barratt appointed a leading accounting firm to conduct an external review of the controls relating to the tendering and procurement processes in the London business. The results of this review were reported to the Audit Committee. Following this review, Barratt says it has adopted additional controls. Barratt said that its London procurement processes differ from wider group processes reflecting the non-standard and oneoff nature of London construction projects.

Based on the investigation to date, Barratt says it does not anticipate any material adverse financial effect. Gary Ennis, regional managing director for Southern Region, will take …