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Survey: Should non-essential construction stop?

Image: Dreamstime/Ilfede

The Chartered Institute of Building (CIOB) has launched a survey to find out whether or not those in the industry think non-essential construction sites should stay open during lockdown.

To take part click the link here.

The CIOB said that with the UK going into another full lockdown and infection rates continuing to rise, it wanted to hear the industry’s thoughts on the impact the coronavirus has had on construction sites and whether it is necessary to keep non-essential sites open during a national lockdown.

The short survey asks respondents to think about when should a construction site close and how employers can protect their workers during the lockdown.

Responses will remain anonymous and the data gathered will be shared with the Construction Industry Council (CIC) as part of a wider evidence gathering piece to further discussions with government and industry.

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Comments

  1. I agree none essential fit-out works should be stopped whilst the rate of infection is so high, why are we being put at risk for none essential works ?

  2. Difficult to define Non Essential work in the Construction Industry. Just because you are not building structures from brick, steel, concrete etc does this make you Non Essential. Part of our portfolio is Managing residential properties, who have burst pipes, ceilings falling in and leaking roofs for example. The residents in these properties require instant attention. Is this classed as construction? or Non Essential construction? I believe if the client and Principle Contractor can agree between them-selves, that there will be no legal claim for delay from either party, common sense should prevail. I also believe the question should be put to the developers who would moan if their projected cash returns were put on hold and losing profit over the workforce health.

  3. Our lives are worth more than materialism

  4. We should allow all construction work to continue. There are so many self-employed whose lives would be destroyed by losing their livelihood. We know from past recessions many leave the industry & never come back. We have a critical shortage of skilled labour & the sector simply can’t afford to lose any more. Especially with the Brexit uncertainty of European labour. Introduce a testing regime, but le to them get on with work. We will need to build ourselves out of this mess and we need a strong healthy workforce. Now is the time to invest in training & attract more labour to construction as a sector where jobs are available. I get all of the health & safety concerns, but with any good risk assessment the risks outweigh the benefits if we take sensible steps to mitigate the impact. Closure will do for construction what the pandemic has done for hospitality. I employee you to avoid another national tragedy.

  5. I think all construction sites and buikders merchants should close right now, if what I’m hearing from the media then this virus is extremely dangerous so why should they stay open and have people put their lives and other people at risk, this goes for off licences and garden centres all of which are non essential

  6. For me I would love to carry on working.
    The big BUT is iv 2 kids at home now, my wife’s a nurse so who looks after my kids with out spreading the risk.
    Kids have to go to school
    The wives to go to the hospital
    Iv to work on site
    Then all meet up at 5 for tea and all give each other covid
    Then do it all again the next day?
    BUT REMEMBER STAY AT HOME😂
    It doesnt work. Full stop

  7. Keep hearing people’s lifes being ruined by not makeing money. what if one of your close family dies because of direct link to not closing sites for a few weeks pretty sure the views would change .

  8. Having worked on the front line with lockdown 1 for 7 weeks 12-14 hours for up to 8 days straight and seeing first hand what actually happens behind the scenes and how this gets reported… BBC, FTSE 100 Construction Companies and MP’s…

    All I will say a believe whatever you want but don’t try and sway me to your point with NO RESEARCH and no first hand EXPERIENCE.

    Keep everything open for the people who what to keep busy and active in a sensible and responsibly.

    Just another valid option and totally up for discussion!

  9. Hi it seems that we cant catch covid on construction sites..it must the small print on our cscs card, and there certainly doesn’t seem to be any controls in place this time round.
    Why should we be put at risk.
    Maybe we should be high priority to get vaccinated.

  10. I believe we play a viral role to keep the Economy going but us construction are being put in a position of high risk on sites.
    H&S has always been our priority, but in this pandemic it has been overlooked, yes we have controls in place but we put our families at risk also when we return home.
    No stats have been published on how many persons have caught the virus whilst carrying out construction works and family members also from this. This wont be shared for the known reason, we are on the front line keeping things going with no choice to make money for others gain.
    Were has zero harm gone, go to work safe and cone home safe Philosophy.
    The HSE has been quite on this, What is essential space work space in construction ?
    All construction lives matter

  11. It should stop you can’t social distance you have many different grades working inside we all follow on from each other which is almost impossible when people are being told to isolate all the time and whilst the kids are not at school we don’t want to be the person who brings it into our houses, I work in peoples houses as well and smaller building sites and where there is not a big company in charge running the site it’s run by people who just want to get the work done

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