YORKSHIRE suffered a double jobs blow yesterday as more than 430 redundancies in haulage and construction were announced.
Developer Barratt Homes is set to lay off 134 people in the region, split between Leeds and Sheffield, as it slashes 1,000 jobs nationally because of the slowdown in the housing market.
A further 300 jobs will go at Leeds-based MacFarlane Transpor
t after it was forced to call in the receivers.
The cuts came just 24 hours after housebuilder Taylor Wimpey announced 900 job losses to cope with a "significant" market downturn, wiping £300m off its stock market value.
Yesterday Barratt said it needed to cut overheads amid the industry slowdown. It pledged to consult staff first but sources at the firm confirmed there would be about 1,000 redundancies in sales, administration and support "over the next few months".
Barratt will close offices in Sheffield and Chester, cutting 60 jobs in each location, and combine eight other divisions into four.
Around 74 people will be made redundant in Leeds, a fifth of its staff in the city, as the firm merges its David Wilson Homes Northern office and its Barratt office into one division, run from the existing Barratt office.
The rest of the job cuts result from the merger of its two Southampton offices and the creation of combined offices for Nottingham and Leicester and Aberdeen and Edinburgh.
The general secretary of the GMB union, Paul Kenny, said: "It is devastating news for the workers and their families. Unfortunately the credit crunch has given rise to a slowdown and we fear more job losses to come."
Yesterday workers turned up at Macfarlane Transport, in Leeds, one of country's biggest road hauliers, to find out it had gone into administration.
The business, which is based in Cross Gates, had a turnover of £20m and approximately 300 employees.
It has ceased trading after rising fuel prices and a competitive market put its margins under unsustainable pressure.
Last-minute attempts were made to find a buyer, but yesterday it was confirmed that Richard Fleming and Brian Green, of KPMG's restructuring practice, had been appointed joint administrators.
One worker yesterday blamed the problems on the high cost of diesel fuel.
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