UK PM Warns That The Construction Industry Will Not Get Better Overnight

“We now need to stress that anyone who can’t work from home, for instance those in construction or manufacturing, should be actively encouraged to go to work.” - UK PM Boris Johnson - 10.05.2020

We all know that the Construction Industry is the least digitized industry - right next to Agriculture and Farming - so it did not come as a surprise the fact that the UK PM Boris Johnson addressed the audience yesterday, about "coming back to work".

“And we want it to be safe for you to get to work. So you should avoid public transport if at all possible – because we must and will maintain social distancing, and capacity will therefore be limited. So work from home if you can but you should go to work if you can’t work from home.” - UK PM Boris Johnson - 10.05.2020

Things Will Not Come Back To Normal - There will be a NEW Normality

Johnson mentioned that the staff should get to work on their own cars or "even better by walking or bicycle". I guess he did not take into consideration the hundreds of workers commuting every day to their workplaces. The business leaders are trying to kick-start and open up fast their doors again, without taking into consideration the Health & Safety violations. This could lead to another wave of sicknesses which would force the industry shut again.

It is time to think more and more on the long run: take advantage of the Government schemes that come as an aid for the companies hit by the pandemic and make plans on how you will settle your company into the New Normality - things will NOT come back to the square one normality level. Plan the logistics and make sure your teams are aware of what will happen next. Make sure your employees and your subcontractors understand the changes in their obligations and that they agree with them.

UK's biggest Housing Shortfall

The Construction Industry cannot handle a shutdown for a long period of time. Have a look at this Independent Article on how the UK was already facing its biggest housing shortfall on record - with a backlog of 4m homes. England must build 340,000 homes per year until 2031 to meet demand and the Coronavirus pandemic putting companies on stand-by makes the situation only worse... The research suggests that around 40 % of all new homes built every year must be affordable homes – in 2016-17, only around 23 % of the total built fell into that category. Affordable homes should not cost more than 80 % of the average rent in a given area.

For more than 2 weeks now I have seen contractors reopening their sites - of course, with greater care and a reduced workforce - yet somehow I feel that the crisis will deepen. The monthly IHS Markit/Cips snapshot showed the main construction activity index fell from 39.3 in March to 8.2 in April, the lowest since the figures were first collected in April 1997, and lower than the previous record low of 27.8 in February 2009 at the height of the financial crisis. There is a widespread shortage of materials and labor force to think of now, and with the few remaining employees on the market, one must make sure they will not get sick as well!

Reopening doors VS. Higher Rate Deaths compared to all other industries

Big names like Mace, Taylor Wimpey, Vistry – formerly known as Bovis Homes - and Persimmon have already reopened their doors. That does not mean that all these workers feel safe... many workers have complained over social media (check the #ShutTheSites hashtag!). It is almost impossible to figure out a way of working, in crowded building sites, where you need to maintain always the 2-meter distancing rules.

It feels ironic that the UK PM tells people to go back to work but at the same time, he makes no effort into creating some kind of Health & Safety plan. How will people get to work if their only option is public transport? To be sure, I must mention this (so that everyone knows!): Data from the Office of National Statistics (ONS) revealed low-skilled construction workers had a death rate of 25.9 deaths per 100,000 males, or 22 deaths, placing it among the worst-hit professions.

There were 87 deaths of workers in the ‘skilled construction and building trades’ occupation category and 90 among those classed a ‘skilled metal, electrical and electronic trades’ with a rate of 10.4 and 11 per 100,000. This compared to 61 deaths in the category of ‘health professionals’, which had a rate of 8.3 for men and 4.9 for women. The ONS data was based on information related to the 2,494 deaths involving COVID-19 in the working-age population, between 20 and 64 years old, registered in England and Wales up to 20 April 2020.

How should employees be comfortable coming back to work, coming back to the construction sites? The push from the Government is real, but where will this push take us?