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Housing: Construction

Asked by David SimmondsConservativeDepartment for Business and TradeTabled Answered 13 September 2024UIN 3823

The question

To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, if he will make an estimate of the proportion of bricks required to meet his target to build 1.5 million homes by the end of this Parliament that will be (a) manufactured in the UK and (b) imported.

Answered by Sarah Jones

In 2023, 1,626 million bricks (81%) were produced in the UK and 329 million bricks (19%) were imported, according to data from DBT’s Building Materials and Components publication and HMRC’s UK Trade Info service respectively.

ONS House building data indicates 190,000 UK dwellings were completed in 2023.

Given variables over specific materials that will be used to construct new homes and the extent to which domestic brick production capacity would need to be scaled-up to meet the level of increased demand necessary to meet the target, it is not possible to give more precise estimates than those provided above

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