Barratt asks John Allan to step down early as chair

House builder Barratt Developments said it had asked chairman John Allan to step down from his role as chairman earlier than planned, to stop allegations of impropriety towards women becoming a distraction to the company.

Allan will step down as chair and as a director of the Company at the end of June instead of September as originally planned. He will be replaced by non-executive director Caroline Silver.

“The board believes it is in the best interests of Barratt to accelerate the planned transition to the new chair of the board to prevent the ongoing impact of the allegations against John from becoming disruptive to the company,” Barratt said in a statement.

Barratt added that it has not received any complaints about Allan during his tenure at the company, which he joined in 2014.

Last Friday, Tesco announced that Allan would step down in June, after the Guardian newspaper reported that he had allegedly touched the bottom of a senior member of Tesco staff in June 2022, at the company’s last annual shareholders meeting.

Four allegations about Allan emerged during the Guardian’s investigation into business lobby group the Confederation of British Industry.

He has denied three of the four claims made against him. He has admitted making a comment about a CBI staffer’s appearance that she found to be offensive in 2019, and apologised for the remark.

In a statement on Tuesday, Allan said he regretted having to step down.

"My early departure from Barratt is a result of the anonymous and unsubstantiated allegations made against me, as reported in the Guardian which I vehemently deny."

Reporting by Frank Prenesti for Sharecast.com