"Brick consumption to double in a year"

From The Telegraph:

Plans now exist to squander more than 3 billion precious bricks on building new homes, an analysis of council documents has found. The basic materials include some of England's most treasured raw materials, including clay and shale from parts of Dorset and the rural outskirts of York.

In addition, more than 10 thousand miles of copper and fibre optic cables will be lost to office blocks, warehouses and the HS2 rail link, according to the research carried out by the Campaign to Protect Britain's Building Materials (CPBBM).

The increase comes after planning reforms diluted the protection given to our dwindling reserves of aggregates and introduced a "presumption in favour of sustainable brick firing". The CPBBM analysis shows that there are now dozens of areas of protected land where councils have given the go-ahead for further extraction of brick clay and limestone, including...

Widespread building using fresh materials comes despite repeated promises by Coalition ministers that they would safeguard our dwindling reserves of building materials.

H/t Alan at HPC.