Housebuilder Barratt Developments this week outlined plans to build 43% more homes a year by 2010.

David Pretty, chief executive, said Barratt aimed to build 20,000 houses a year by 2010, compared with 14,000 now.

For the second year in a row, Barratt built more homes than any other housebuilder.

It also used more brownfield sites than its competitors. Last year Barratt built more than 200 homes on brownfield sites every week.

More than four in five Barratt homes are now developed on brownfield, significantly exceeding the government’s 60% target.

Revealing an impressive set of annual results on Wednesday, Pretty said that Barratt expected to undertake £5bn of regeneration projects over the next three years, £500m of which will be in the social housing sector.

Pretty said: “We have been in regeneration for over 25 years, long before the government made it fashionable.”

He said the firm now had the resources to do the job.

Pre-tax profit rose 27% to £367.7m for the year ended 30 June, on a £2.5bn turnover – an increase of 16%.

Barratt has secured 55% of the land required for the next financial year. In August it sold its southern Californian division for £90m, the proceeds from which will be reinvested in its UK business.

Pretty welcomed the slowing housing market. He said: “Prices were clearly unsustainable in the last couple of years and that was not good for anyone.”

The board recommended a final dividend of 21.58p, an increase of 25%; earnings per share rose 25% to 111.4p.