Brick company lays off 80

Around 80 Kidderminster brickworkers will be laid off for up to three months later this year as the housing slowdown slashes the demand for bricks.

Austrian-based Wienerberger, which bought the plants at Kingsbury and Hartlebury in its £100 million takeover of Baggeridge Brick last year, said that it was being forced to cut production.

Two plants in the South of England are being mothballed but the two Kidderminster plants, and a third at Warsley near Tamworth, which employs around 50 people, will all close at the end of the year for between eight and 12 weeks.

The Sedgley works are unaffected.

The 130 workers at the plants will all be laid off for that period, said Wienerberger UK's sales and marketing director Mark Morrison.

He blamed the slump in the housing market.

The director said: "We normally build 200,000 homes a year in the United Kingdom but that is down by 30 per cent this year so far.

"There are predictions only 110,000 houses will be built in 2008," he added.

Although the three Midlands plants will be working at full capacity over the coming months, they will be shut down in December, announced the company.