Major contractors and housebuilders including Taylor Wimpey and Persimmon are keen to restart work in light of further relaxations of coronavirus pandemic restrictions nationwide.
Activity in the construction sector plummeted by almost a third in May compared with the same month last year, as construction felt the bite from the on-going crisis.
Under lockdown in the UK, construction workers were permitted to continue work while observing social distancing measures. However, according to a survey by Constructionline, 87% of those in the construction industry said that their business has been affected by Covid-19, with 62% having to suspend operations in some way.
Just 524 projects were approved last month according to figures from Builder’s Conference, the UK’s leading construction trade body. This represents a massive drop on the 770 contracts awarded during the same period last year, and a considerable drop compared to the 682 awarded in May of this year.
Travis Perkins – the UK’s biggest builders merchants – have been forced into cutting 2,500 jobs in the UK – almost a 10th of its workforce – and closing 165 stores as it expects weaker demand for materials in the next two years in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The company owns a number of chains including the DIY retailer Wickes and Toolstation, with 2,154 branches around the country.
Travis Perkins has started a consultation of its staff on the job cuts and the branch closures, which will reduce its network by 8%. The job losses will also affect non-store roles in distribution, administrative and sales, and reduce its 30,000-strong workforce by 9%.
The branch closures will mostly affect the builders’ merchant businesses, in particular the Travis Perkins chain, focusing on small branches where it is difficult to implement physical-distancing rules, or where profits will be wiped out by lower trade.
On a more optimistic note, at least 100,000 homes should be built every year to rent to key workers who have helped fight coronavirus and to the families of those who have lost loved ones in the pandemic, according to a report by the Local Government Association.
The cross-party LGA says the modern day “homes for heroes” plan would also help regenerate the economy and create many thousands of jobs, while massively cutting the nation’s huge housing benefit bill.
Its report says the 100,000 target should become part of the government’s wider ambition for building 300,000 homes a year. The new social housing could also be used to accommodate the many thousands of rough sleepers who were placed in hotels and other temporary places during the pandemic.
The LGA’s report, Building new social rent homes – an updated economic appraisal, is evidence of growing pressure on ministers to use house building as central part of economic regeneration measures, which the Prime Minister Boris Johnson has said will be announced by the chancellor Rishi Sunak within weeks.
David Renard, LGA housing spokesman and Tory leader of Swindon borough council, said the scheme would be a modern day version of the “home for heroes” house building projects after the world wars. “As the nation comes through the biggest crisis we have faced since the second world war, we owe it to the health, care and other essential public service workers, who have risked their lives to keep the country running, to provide them with affordable, high-quality homes,” Renard said.
“The government should let councils take charge of the housing recovery, by giving them the powers and tools to build more of the affordable homes the country desperately needs.”
Groups of housing associations, developers and architects have been pushing similar ideas as the effect of the pandemic on construction and the wider economy has become clear.
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