Personally Speaking: ‘British bricks must lay foundation for building of much-needed homes’
- Feb 12
- 3 min read
Last week, I brought my first Bill to Parliament. It was prompted by something straightforward: if we’re aiming to build 1.5 million more homes, and working to build our future – from schools to hospitals and everything in-between, we should be doing that in a way that backs British workers and British industry.
That matters in Newcastle-under-Lyme and across North Staffordshire, where skilled labour like brickmaking and ceramics are woven into the fabric of our community.
Local workers here have been producing high-quality British bricks for decades. These are real jobs, rooted in our communities, built on skills passed down over generations.
That’s what my British-made Bricks Bill is about.
We all know there is a housing crisis. Too many families are living in overcrowded or insecure homes. Too many young people and first-time buyers are struggling to find a place to call their own.
I welcome the ambition to build more homes, but how we build matters just as much as how many we build.
If we are building houses, community centres, schools and hospitals, then British bricks should be the default choice.
Right now, that isn’t happening nearly enough. Despite having the capacity in this country, we are relying increasingly on imported bricks.
Around one in five bricks used in the United Kingdom now comes from overseas. That didn’t happen by accident – after the economic crash in the late 2000s, many brick kilns closed and imports filled the gap. The result is a situation that simply doesn’t make sense.
The UK can produce around two billion bricks a year, yet many factories are running well below full output.
If we were making better use of that capacity, we could support thousands more jobs, strengthen local economies and keep valuable skilled work in communities like ours.
There’s also an environmental case for doing this properly. Imported bricks often travel long distances, increasing carbon emissions and diverting investment out of the UK.
British-made bricks, by contrast, typically travel shorter distances to site, reducing transport emissions and keeping money in local supply chains.
There’s also the question of quality. British-made clay bricks are well suited to our climate, fire-resistant, and built to last.
A typical clay-brick building can endure for around 150 years, and at the end of that life it can be refurbished, recycled or reused.
In a post-Grenfell world, where safety and long-term resilience matter, that durability counts for a lot.
For North Staffordshire, our ceramics and brickmaking industries support thousands of skilled jobs and underpin much of the local economy.
These industries don’t just supply construction materials – they help make it possible for other sectors to thrive too.
When demand for British-made products falls, it isn’t just factories that feel it – it’s families, local businesses and town centres.
That’s why I wanted to raise this issue in Parliament and make the case for a more local-first approach to building materials. It’s not about shutting out trade – it’s about recognising and backing the talent and capacity we already have.
It’s also about the future. We’re training young people locally in brickwork and construction skills, with superb courses at Newcastle College.
But training only makes sense if there’s a strong industry to put those skills to use – a clear pathway for our talented young people to reliably follow.
Otherwise, we risk preparing people for jobs that no longer exist.
The Bill passed its first stage last week. That’s an important step, but it’s only a start. I’ll keep pushing to make sure that when Britain builds, it builds properly – and that places like Newcastle-under-Lyme are at the heart of it.
If we’re going to build the homes, schools and community centres that our area, and this country needs, we have got to do it in a way that supports British workers, British businesses and the British people.
