Barratt Developments told staff yesterday that it would make about 1,000 people redundant, taking job losses in the construction industry to nearly 2,300 in just two days.

Barratt, whose shares have plunged by 97 per cent since their peak in February 2007, summoned its employees to meetings yesterday where they were told that the management was looking to cut about 15 per cent of the 6,700 workforce.

Galliford Try, the construction group, also confirmed that it was cutting 256 jobs in its housebuilding division in response to the weaker property market.

Ballymore, the residential and commercial developer, will cut 50 jobs - more than 10 per cent of its workforce - as part of a management shake-up.

On Wednesday Taylor Wimpey, Britain's largest housebuilder by volume, said that it was cutting 900 jobs and closing a third of its regional offices to reduce costs in the face of a 45 per cent slump in reservations of new houses and a 33 per cent fall in completions.

TPG, the private equity group previously known as Texas Pacific, has said that it is willing to talk to Taylor Wimpey about a rescue buyout if the company were to approach it. However, no discussions are taking place.

Other housebuilders known to be in the process of making redundancies include Bellway, which is set to cut 250 jobs, Persimmon, Crest Nicholson and Countryside Properties.

Housebuilders have seen billions wiped off their stock market value in the past three months as mortgage rationing from the main high street lenders has led to a dramatic slowdown in the housing market.

It also emerged yesterday that receivers had been called in to parts of City Lofts, a residential developer specialising in building apartments in urban areas.

About 250 of City Lofts' unsold appartments in five developments and an unstarted development site in Sutton Coldfield have been put into receivership. John Gershinson, of Allsop, the auctioneers and surveyors, has been appointed receiver.

Properties that the receiver is now trying to sell include flats in a 203-apartment block in Salford Quays, Manchester, apartments in Nottingham, Leeds, in Prince's Dock in Liverpool and in Cardiff. Mr Gershinson said that he was trying to work out a strategy to recover funds for Bank of Scotland, a lender to the group.

The regional residential market has suffered since the onset of the credit crunch because of an oversupply of city centre apartments, the withdrawal of buy-to-let buyers from the market and the difficulties first-time buyers still face in raising mortgages.

City Lofts was formed in 1996 and was listed on AIM before being taken private in 2007 when an investment vehicle owned by JER Partners, an American private equity company, and Lehman Brothers bought a 30 per cent stake. It is understood that there was very little equity left.

The rest of the company is owned by Stuart Wright, chief executive, and fellow founding directors Rossano Mansoori-Dara and Anthony Brooks, who each own 18.6 per cent.

Among other corporate casualties yesterday were Flying Brands, the gifts and card company, which said that it was closing its card business Greetings Direct in Britain as well as in the US and Australia.

Separately, administrators were appointed at Macfarlane Transport, a haulage company based in Leeds, which employs about 300 people. Hauliers have come under increasing pressure recently as fuel costs have rocketed.

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