asked the Secretary of State for the Environment how many new bricks he now estimates are stockpiled; how many brickworks have reduced production or closed down since 1st January 1974; how many brickmaking workers have been made redundant over the same period; and how many are now on short time.
The Department's provisional figure for stocks of bricks at the end of 1974 is 909 million. 19 brickworks closures were notified in 1974 and
struction and transport industries in each country, are given below:
there have also been some closures of plants within works. Most brickworks have reduced production. The Employment Service Agency was notified of 3,739 redundancies in brickmaking from January 1974 to January 1975 inclusive, and the Department of Employment's statistics indicate that about 100 employees were on short-time working in the week ending 14th December 1974. The latter figure also includes the fireclay and refractory brick industries.