The top five housebuilder denied the claims, which were made in Tonight with Trevor McDonald on 4 January. Barratt said the Granada programme was unbalanced and sensationalist.
Barratt said: "This was dishonest television passed off as investigative journalism." It intends to take the matter to the Broadcasting Standards Commission and the Independent Television Commission.
A Granada spokesman defended the programme. He said: "We thoroughly investigated the allegations that were brought to our attention and stand by the programme as broadcast." The row blew up as three other top 10 housebuilders – Westbury, Beazer and Berkeley – came under fire on BBC1 consumer show Watchdog.
The Trevor McDonald programme centred on three families who complained about poor workmanship in their homes.
Barratt had to move one couple into a hotel for a week after the kitchen ceiling collapsed and a crack appeared in the living room floor.
The programme was contrived and distorted the facts to suit its own storyline with no attempt at fairness or balance
Barratt statement
A second couple claimed that the home they moved into was different from the one they had been promised. A third family alleged that their house was infested with rats before they moved in and that they had to leave after six months after environmental health offices deemed their home unfit for human habitation.
An undercover journalist also secretly filmed a site manager admitting that he forged residents' signatures on customer satisfaction forms and sold site materials illegally.
The site manager, Dennis Walker, was employed at a Barratt estate in Stockport, Greater Manchester. He described Barratt as "greedy, greedy, bastards". He said: "The f****** aura of the f****** company is that they want more and more and more. They ought to be renamed 'Oliver Twist Homes'." Walker said each resident had to sign a satisfaction form before he could receive a £50 bonus and if it was obvious someone was not going to sign, he forged the signature.
Barratt angrily rejected claims made by Walker. In a detailed statement, a spokesperson said: "The programme was contrived and distorted the facts to suit its own storyline with no attempt at fairness or balance.
"It relied heavily on allegations made by a former subcontractor, whose work did not meet our standards and that we no longer employ." Walker has since left the company.
The f****** aura of the f****** company is that they want more and more. They ought to be renamed ‘Oliver Twist Homes’
Dennis Walker, former Barratt employee secretly filmed on tonight with Trevor McDonald
The 5 January Watchdog programme investigated a Beazer development in Warrington, Cheshire, where two-thirds of the residents reported problems.
A Beazer spokesperson said: "All customers at Warrington have been contacted; those who had outstanding issues have been, or will be, completed by the end of January.
"The vast majority of our customers are delighted with their new homes, but we accept that there are times when we don't always get it right." Watchdog viewers also contacted the programme to complain about several Berkeley developments in London, which they claimed had a total of 350 defects.
A Berkeley spokesperson referred to problems created by the shortages of experienced staff. She said: "The remedial works are not always completed in as timely a way as we, or our customers, would like, not least because of labour shortages." Residents on a Westbury estate in Winnersh, Berkshire, complained of an uncompleted road and gardens.
