Britain’s devastated brick industry is sitting on a stockpile of 1.2 billion bricks, enough to build more than 133,000 three-bedroom properties, The Times has learnt.

With forecasts that only 50,000 new homes will be started next year, it could take years to clear the glut of bricks, leaving the industry in tatters for the foreseeable future.

The country’s three biggest brickmakers are facing the industry’s worst conditions for 20 years and have shed off more than 1,200 workers. With house completions languishing at levels not seen since 1945, the manufacturers have mothballed almost a quarter of their factories in response to the housebuilding crisis.

Last year, they produced 2.4 billion bricks between them; this year, they have a stockpile of 60 per cent of production.

Ibstock, the biggest brickmaker in the UK, which is owned by CRH, the Irish building products group, has mothballed four of its nineteen plants. Hanson, now owned by Heidelberg-Cement, has closed two plants and shed 600 staff.

The Vienna-based Wienerberger, the world’s largest brickmaker, which owns Baggeridge Brick and the Sandtoft roof tile business, has cut 400 jobs, mothballed four plants and temporarily halted production at another eight.

Wienerberger has reported a 20 per cent fall in volumes this year and expects to a further 20 per cent drop in 2009. It has been unable to rule out further redundancies.

As if this were not bad enough, there are fears that the international owners of Britain’s remaining brickworks will not reopen their production facilities, even when a recovery in the housing market comes, preferring cheaper production facilities in Central or Eastern Europe. “These businesses are owned by international companies who don’t have any special loyalty to the UK,” Simon Storer, external affairs director at the Construction Products Association, said. “We are aware in other sectors of international owners that had planned significant investments in the UK and that is not now going to happen.”

The collapse in the oil price has reduced the cost of shipping, making it increasingly viable to ship bricks to Britain in future from low-cost production facilities overseas.

There are also concerns that once the housing market does start to pick up, the damage done to the building materials sector will mean that housebuilders will find it difficult to keep up with customer demand – potentially leading to another housing bubble and soaring property prices.

Michael Driver, director of the Brick Development Association, is more optimistic. “There has been a huge amount of investment in the industry in the past few years. If it wasn’t for the housing market collapse, it would be in good shape and competitive.”

Housebuilders are reporting reservation levels falling to half the number of last year and have cut their production accordingly. The industry has cut more than 6,000 jobs in the past six months as the seizure in the banking sector means that people are unable to secure mortgages to buy new homes.

As builders have stopped work, house prices have plunged. Figures out this week from the Halifax, the country’s biggest lender, showed that prices had fallen by a record 16.1 per cent in November, marking the sharpest drop in property values for a quarter of a century.

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