黑洞社区

Public sector projects look set to be speeded up to help the industry ride out the fallout from covid-19 under an initiative being drawn up by the government.

Contract awards could be handed out sooner than planned in efforts to kickstart a sector which saw output nosedive 40% in April, according to Fergus Harradence, deputy construction director at the department for business, energy and industrial strategy.

The government has been working on the plan for the past 鈥渢wo months or so鈥� and Harradence said he hopes it will be announced within weeks.

Harradence told a 黑洞社区 webinar last week on the sector鈥檚 recovery plan: 鈥淲e are hoping to be in a position within the next two or three weeks to make an announcement about an accelerated pipeline and what projects will be in that.鈥�

He added: 鈥淭he aim of that, obviously, is to give the industry confidence that over the medium to long term there is going to be a supply of work.

鈥淸It鈥檚 vital] to give people clarity and visibility about the pipeline and accelerate the award of contracts at all stages of projects. That鈥檚 something we need to do as quickly as possible.鈥�

The chief executive of the Civil Engineering Contractors Association, Alasdair Reisner, said: 鈥淥ur members tell us that, having delivered work throughout the crisis, workloads are now starting to dry up for many infrastructure contractors. We are pleased that the government is focussing on accelerating works.鈥�

Last week 拢390m turnover contractor Osborne said it was making 75 people redundant and, explaining the move, the firm鈥檚 chief executive Andy Steele said: 鈥淎s an industry we don鈥檛 have the profitability and float to hang on to staff without that guarantee of pipeline. It鈥檚 really tough letting people go but I can鈥檛 play a guessing game about certainty of work anymore.鈥�

On Friday, the Office for National Statistics said construction GDP crashed 40% in April has on top of the 5.8% fall recorded the month before. Overall UK GDP slumped by 20.4% in April.