<p>Barratt expects to spend £1.5 billion on land following the £2.2 billion acquisition of top ten rival Wilson Bowden. The deal put Barratt at the top of the housebuilding league table and, with the company valued at around £4.3 billion, pushed it into the FTSE 100. Barratt chief executive Mark Clare told Housebuilder: “We have a limited landbank and so we wanted to consolidate it. We expect to spend £1.5 billion on land going forward.” He added that Wilson Bowden “was a perfect fit for Barratt.” The consolidation has swollen Barratt’s landbank from 70,500 to 103,557 plots and given it a strategic landbank of around 5,100ha. This gives Barratt a supply of 5.3 years and reduces its reliance on the vagaries of the planning system.</p> <p> The housebuilder’s annual housing output will increase to around 20,000 units. Clare said the two housebuilders were a logical fit geographically, with David Wilson Homes’strength in the midlands complementing Barratt’s traditional north east and south eastern realms. Wilson Bowden’s construction arm was also an attractive selling point said Clare: “Mixed use schemes need a range of skills: this side of Wilson Bowden’s business will remain as a standalone but we want it to work …