The report, complied with the Centre for Economics and Business Research (Cebr), is based on the assumption that the average UK home is made up of 5,180 bricks.

From this it was calculated that the number of bricks needed to build the 264,000 homes required to resolve the housing shortage is 1.4 billion.

The report calculated that the same number of bricks could also build the UK’s great landmarks many times over, including:

•             740 Big Bens

•             40 Tower Bridges

•             3,090 Manchester Town Halls

•             4,540 Warwick Castles

•             5,830 Conwy Castles

The report also concluded that there was a significant shortage of brick supply and found that brick stock had steadily declined between 2008 and 2013.

In 2016, two-thirds of SMEs in the construction industry had to wait two months for new brick orders, one quarter up to four months and one in six between six to eight months.

This is in spite of NAEA figures reporting that the size of the average house has shrunk by 46% in the last one hundred years.

Even over the last 10 years, the average home size has been reduced by 9%

Mark Hayward, managing director of NAEA, commented: “We all know that the massive lack of supply in housing is an issue that needs resolving urgently.

“As well as freeing up more land to ensure we can build the right sort of houses in the right places, it’s crucial we have the right materials and skills to do so.

“It seems a simple consideration, but the fact that we don’t have enough bricks to meet demand has a very real effect and holds up the process from beginning to end.

“We’re concerned that the impact of the EU referendum means this problem could get worse as we rely on the import of brick components from the EU and, of course, many of our skilled labourers come from there too.”