黑洞社区

Deliveries of construction products are being impacted by a soaring number of industry-wide absences due to self-isolating workers, the UK鈥檚 biggest building materials supplier has admitted.

Travis Perkins said it is doing 鈥渆verything in our power to minimise the impact鈥� of staff shortages after data showed that more than 500,000 people in the UK were 鈥榩inged鈥� by the NHS covid app in the week to 7 July, up nearly 50% on the previous week.

The firm鈥檚 warning comes amid an ongoing materials shortage and after a weekend during which new covid cases hit 50,000, the highest since mid-January at the peak of the pandemic鈥檚 second wave.

A spokesperson for Travis Perkins said: 鈥淟ike all other businesses in the country we are affected by the increasing number of coronavirus cases and colleagues being told to self-isolate as a consequence of track and trace.

鈥淭his is affecting pockets of our branch network, but we are working through this at local levels with our customers and doing everything in our power to minimise the impact on our service by fulfilling orders from other locations where required.

鈥淲here branches are impacted, order levels may on occasion take a little longer than we would like, and we continue to monitor the situation.鈥�

The NHS test and trace app alerts people who have come into contact with someone infected with covid-19 and tells them to self-isolate for 10 days, meaning that they cannot leave their homes to go to work.

Construction sites are already struggling to fill roles due to an ongoing labour shortage, while the increase in the number of people being told to self-isolate comes as many workers are on leave due to summer holidays.

黑洞社区 understands that one medium-sized contractor in London is currently facing 20% of its site staff having to self-isolate.

And Neil Sherreard, deputy chairman of regional contractor Beard, said the industry could be in for a 鈥渞ough few weeks鈥�.

Sherreard, who was himself 鈥榩inged鈥� by the app six days ago and is currently self-isolating, said that Beard has seen an increase in covid absences 鈥渃ertainly in the last week alone鈥�.

鈥淵ou鈥檝e got a bit of a perfect storm in a lot of respects 鈥� people having to isolate, lack of people, lack of materials, European labour returning home and not going back.鈥�

He added that while Beard was currently able to cover absent staff, he expected covid cases to increase and advised firms to plan ahead by securing freelance support.

A spokesperson for Keltbray, which is currently carrying out the demolition of Elephant and Castle shopping centre as part of a 拢1.5bn regeneration scheme, said the contractor was continuing with social distancing and face masks on its sites 鈥渇or the foreseeable future鈥� to prevent any covid outbreaks 鈥� after rules on facemasks changed yesterday as part of so-called 鈥榝reedom day鈥�..

Build UK chief executive Suzannah Nichol said that the industry was in for a 鈥渓ong four weeks鈥� until rules over self-isolating are relaxed on 16 August.

Nichol said that members of the trade group had flagged the so-called 鈥榩ingdemic鈥� as the biggest risk they were currently facing 鈥渂ecause it takes whole teams down鈥�.

鈥淥nce it takes a group out, you haven鈥檛 got a spare gang, you can鈥檛 just replace them. They鈥檙e usually very bespoke to that particular job and that particular site so it is going to become more of a challenge.鈥�

She said that, according to feedback from members, more industry workers were currently in self-isolation than at any point during the pandemic and warned that some firms were already looking at reviewing their programmes for projects because of the labour shortages.

Last week, the CLC said the construction employers should 鈥渆xpect and recommend鈥� that staff continue to wear face coverings in crowded and enclosed areas beyond yesterday鈥檚 formal easing of covid restrictions.

The government will still require close contacts of people in England who have tested positive for covid-19 to self-isolate until 16 August.

From that date onwards, close contacts will not have to self-isolate if they have received both doses of the vaccine or are under 18.

They will be advised to get a PCR test and if it is positive then they will still need to self-isolate for 10 days.