Covid-19 Update – 26 March 2020

Introduction

This short briefing has been prepared on behalf of the UK construction sector to brief companies and individuals on the ongoing repercussions of the Covid-19 coronavirus for our sector. 

Support the fight against Coronavirus

The UK Government has asked industry to offer support to those fighting coronavirus. If your business can offer any support in any of the following areas:

protective equipment for healthcare workers, such as masks, gowns and sanitiser

hotel rooms

transport and logistics, for moving goods or people

manufacturing equipment

warehouse or office space, for medical use or storage

expert advice or consultancy on IT, manufacturing, construction, project management, procurement or engineering

social care or childcare

community support

Please use this link to offer your help.

Further advice on safe working

The Government has provided further guidance on safe working and social distancing. The updated guidance can be found here. As a reminder, industry advice on site operating procedures can be found here. Sites that cannot operate in line with this guidance must not stay open.

Business support FAQs

The UK Government Business Support website has been updated to provide answers to some FAQs on issues related to Covid-19 support for companies. https://www.businesssupport.gov.uk/faqs 

Navigating COVID-19 webinars

The Association for Consultancy and Engineering have launched a new webinar series to help the industry through the coronavirus crisis. Each episode is hosted by chief executive Hannah Vickers who will be joined by a number of industry, political and business experts. Navigating COVID-19 is free to attend and recordings will be made available after the initial broadcast on the ACE website. Topics covered include finance, procurement, HR and communications. Find out more on ACE’s website or sign-up now to the webinars through the links below:

Emergency Response – Thursday 26 March, 11.00am to 12.00pm.

Support for your SME – Tuesday 31 March, 1.30pm to 2.20pm.

Procurement and Government contracts – Thursday 02 April, 12.00pm to 1.00pm.

People in a pandemic – Tuesday 7 April, 12.00pm to 1.00pm.

Communicating in a crisis – Thursday 9 April 2020, 1.30pm to 2.30pm.

The Building and Engineering Services Association is also running a daily webinar for industry on Covid-19 issues. Details are available here.

The Electrical Contractors Association will hold a webinar at 11am on Friday 27 March. It is open to the wider engineering services industry, and it will major on commercial, contractual and employment issues. Details are available here.

MOT exemption 

Vehicle owners will be granted a 6-month exemption from MOT testing, enabling them to continue to travel to work where this absolutely cannot be done from home, or shop for necessities. All cars, vans and motorcycles which usually would require an MOT test will be exempted from needing a test from 30 March 2020. Vehicles must be kept in a roadworthy condition, and garages will remain open for essential repair work. Drivers can be prosecuted if driving unsafe vehicles. For more information click here.

Filing accounts

Companies House have announced that businesses will be given an additional 3 months to file accounts to help companies avoid penalties as they deal with the impacts of COVID-19. Full guidance on applying for an extension can be found here.

Gender pay reporting

Enforcement of the gender pay gap reporting deadlines are suspended for this reporting year (2019/20) due to the Coronavirus outbreak. The decision means there will be no expectation on employers to report their data.

Your feedback is vital – new survey 23 March

The construction industry’s federations are in regular dialogue with representatives from the UK Government to discuss the impact of Covid-19. To support this work we need feedback from businesses as to how they are affected by the pandemic. 

Please take five minutes to fill in this survey to ensure that this work is supported by the most up-to-date feedback from industry. The new survey can be found at https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/23MarCovidConstruction

This briefing has been prepared in collaboration between the industry’s leading trade and representative bodies: Association for Consultancy and Engineering, Build UK, Chartered Institute of Building, Civil Engineering Contractors Association, Construction Plant-hire Association, Construction Products Association, Electrical Contractors Association, Federation of Master Builders, National Federation of Builders, and Institution of Civil Engineers. 

We are grateful to Building, Construction Enquirer, Construction Manager, Construction News, Highways, New Civil Engineer and Infrastructure Intelligence for support in distribution to the wider industry.