It said: “Increased activity levels across the industry in terms of site openings and production volumes combined with shortages of skilled workers has contributed to an increased risk of accidents on sites.

“We remain fully committed to the highest standards of health and safety on our sites.

“In the year, our reportable injury incidence rate has increased with 462 (2017: 379) reportable incidents per 100,000 employees.

“We have already undertaken a review into factors that have contributed to this increase and will be working with our management teams to drive improvements in the prevention of injuries.”

Barratt has also set a target of increasing construction levels by up to 5% in the medium turn to boost completions to 20,000 a year.

That will be step change on the current output of 17,579 units which only increased by 1.1% on last year.

The figures were contained in latest results from Britain’s biggest house builder which posted a pre-tax profit up 9.2% to £835.5m on turnover up 4.8% to £4,874m for the year to June 30 2018 as gross margins hit 20.7%.

Barratt said: “We have a robust and carefully managed supply chain with around 90% of the housebuild materials sourced by our centralised procurement function manufactured or assembled in the UK.

“On labour, we continue to see some pressure on skilled labour supply with shortages remaining location and trade specific.

“We are also improving construction efficiency and reducing demand on labour through implementing the new housetype ranges, which are easier to build, and through the use of alternative build options such as Timber Frames, Large Format Block and Light Gauge Steel Frames.

“We continue to expect that overall build cost inflation for FY19 will be c. 3-4%.”