Forterra has started a round of job cuts as a predicted recovery in the housing market fails to materialise.

The brick giant mothballed its Howley Park factory earlier this year in a £10m cost-cutting drive as the residential market slumped.

It was banking on a second half recovery but in a trading update this morning said: Demand for our products for the rest of the year remains subject to significant uncertainty with rising interest rates widely expected to adversely impact the demand for new homes for the foreseeable future.”

“As set out at the start of the year, our expectations for 2023 were based upon an underlying fall in full year market demand of 20% relative to 2022, with a slow start to the year followed by a meaningful recovery strengthening into H2 

” However, we are now assuming only a modest improvement in trading conditions, and therefore expect to deliver full year EBITDA with a more balanced H1 / H2 split.”

Forterra said the job losses would follow a restructuring of its commercial and support operations “aligning them to anticipated demand, which we expect to save approximately £3m annually.”

The firm will publish its half year result later this month and is expecting to report revenue down 18% to £183m with a pre-tax profit of £18m compared to £37.3m last time.