The health and safety of everyone involved in what we do has always been our number one priority.
The Government has advised that construction and housebuilding sites should remain open, as part of the national effort to sustain the economy during this crisis.
With support from our industry, the Government has developed new site operating procedures to allow work to continue safely and in a way that observes social distancing guidelines.
To allow us to identify those projects on which we could implement the site operating procedures fully, we paused all of our mechanical & electrical projects for at least 48 hours. Those projects where we have been able to re-plan our activities, so we comply with the site operating procedures in full will reopen on Monday (30 March). All other sites and projects will remain closed.
On those projects that are reopening, we will be reducing significantly the number of people on site to enable us to comply with social distancing guidelines, reducing productivity.
We recognise the challenge individuals will face in travelling to work safely, particularly in central London and believe the Tube should, for now, be reserved for the use of key workers. Accordingly, where our staff and supply chain staff have no other means to getting to work, we will meet their costs of getting to work (for example, by refunding car parking costs).
We welcome last week’s industry statement from Build UK, which reflects our own position, particularly in relation to the importance of continuing certain construction and maintenance activities.
We would like to thank all our colleagues and our suppliers for their continuing commitment and dedication. These are difficult times, but we are determined to look after the health and safety of everyone involved in what we do and in line with government guidance – to play our part in the national effort to sustain the economy at this time of crisis.
