Barratt Awarded Gold For Support Of The Armed Forces

Barratt Developments plc, the UK’s largest housebuilder and current WhatHouse? Housebuilder of the Year, has been given a gold award – the highest status by the Ministry of Defence – for its work with the Armed Forces.

The gold status is part of the Employer Recognition Scheme Awards, which recognise organisations that demonstrate support for the defence and Armed Forces community.

Barratt Developments signed the Armed Forces Covenant back in 2016 and since then has worked hard to increase its commitment to the Armed Forces community, being awarded silver status last year. Its most notable achievement is its award-winning Armed Forces Transition programme, which is now run by veterans for veterans. Demonstrating the programme’s success, in the past three years over 100 ex Armed Forces people have been recruited onto the programme. This year Barratt also introduced a new 5% deposit contribution scheme for Armed Forces personnel.

Johnny Mercer, minister for defence people and veterans, said: “The breadth and diversity of the winners this year shows how business support for the Armed Forces continues to grow no matter the sector, company size or location. I am grateful for the positive attitude and flexible policies these organisations have adopted towards the defence community, which is testament to the fantastic contribution our serving personnel, veterans and their families can make to any organisation.

I am delighted that so many companies are supporting our people and that, through this scheme, we can give them the public recognition they deserve.”

David Thomas, chief executive of Barratt Developments, said: “We know what great employees our ex-Armed Forces colleagues are which is why we recruit so many of them. To achieve the gold award for our Armed Forces support in just five years shows how much we value our own ex-Armed Forces employees and how committed we are to helping serving personnel, veterans and their families.”