Housebuilder Bellway is to re-start work on some of its construction sites after saying it has developed ways of social distancing for building workers.
The Newcastle company shut its building sites at the end of March as a result of the coronavirus outbreak and said it expected new house sales to “almost cliff-edge”.
Now the company has issued an update saying that it will resume some construction work on a phased basis from next week, starting with sites that were close to completion.
The update said: “The construction industry is a significant contributor to the UK economy and as such, the Government has issued guidance stating that sites should continue to operate where they comply with the Construction Leadership Council’s Site Operating Procedures and Public Health England guidance.
“Over recent weeks, Bellway has been reviewing these procedures in order to establish a safe method of working for its site operatives. As a result, we have developed measures to ensure social distancing and have produced strict guidelines for workers on our sites.
“Working collaboratively with our supply chain, this will enable us to resume some construction work, initially on a phased basis, from May 4.
“The wellbeing of our employees, customers, subcontract workers and the general public remains our priority. In order to help meet the expectations of those customers who were expecting to move into their new home over recent weeks, we are concentrating our efforts on those properties that are in the latter stages of construction.
“We will only be undertaking tasks that can be performed by our employees and subcontractors working in a safe and responsible manner, whilst adhering to strict social distancing measures.”
Bellway has already postponed an interim dividend, deferred all discretionary land expenditure and its board has taken a 20% pay reduction.
The company said it had furloughed around 75% of colleagues, though it had committed to paying them in full in April and May.
But it has now deferred a claim to the Government’s Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme, which pays 80% of salary for furloughed staff, while it assesses the financial impact of re-opening sites.
Bellway said it had agreed to extend repayment of some bank facilities due this year to 2021 and confirmed it was eligible for up to £300m in support from the Bank of England’s Covid Corporate Financing Facility.
It said it had “ample headroom” to get through the crisis and was committed to paying suppliers in accordance with normal terms.
As part of the update, Bellway said it had completed the sale of 6,506 homes in the six months to the end of April, down only slightly from the same period last year.
That included 493 completions after the coronavirus lockdown came into force at the end of March, and it had still had “modest” reservations by telephone since then.
It said it expected sales to be “severely restrained” until it could open sales outlets, however.
