About 74 workers at Stewart Milne Timber Systems factory in Witney are facing redundancy.

The company said the downturn in housebuilding sales had prompted it to start a consultation process seeking to reduce its 191-strong workforce by more than a third.

Final numbers would be defined during the consultation process, said the company, which opened its Witney factory in 2001, supplying major housebuilders with timber frame kits.

Only last September, the company was predicting that the Witney operation could double in size in the next three years, as a possible site for a fully fledged housebuilding division by 2010.

The company was also looking to build on its Witney-built Sigma home, the first commercially viable home that would have near zero carbon emissions.

And owners Stewart Milne and family featured at number 214 in this year's Sunday Times Rich List, up from 251, with £294m.

Source: Witney Gazette