Coronavirus update for construction: 23 March

Coronavirus Update – Monday 23 March 2020

The Chancellor’s statement on Friday afternoon already seems like a long time ago. It offered welcome news in terms of business support and we have provided details of each of the loans and grants available below, along with information on payment of public sector suppliers. Support for self-employed workers is still limited and that point has been made to the Government by all industry sectors.

We know our colleagues in HMRC and the Treasury are working as fast as they can to roll out these new schemes, and we will share further information as soon as it is available.

The Government has three priorities: Reduce Infection, Develop a Vaccine and Treatment, and Support Business. We know that activity on anything other than coronavirus has stopped and that is the same for many of us. Whilst Build UK deals with providing information and support to members and the wider industry as quickly as possible, we may not be able to respond on other issues and hope that you can bear with us.

You can help in a number of ways:

1. If your construction site is still operational, keep it going until we are told otherwise - our proposed Standard Operating Procedures on protecting the site workforce will be available this week.
2. Do your best to keep paying your supply chain and your staff, as well as holding on to your apprentices.
3. Let Build UK know if you can supply medical grade (or equivalent) PPE, masks, gloves, gowns and goggles to the NHS.

The unprecedented level of financial support being offered by Government will require businesses to act in a responsible manner. The aim is to keep cash flowing through the whole supply chain so that businesses of all sizes can survive the current crisis. The latest information on each loan or grant is available at Support for Business and we have included a summary at the end of this statement.

The Cabinet Office has now published two Procurement Policy Notices (PPNs) in relation to public sector suppliers:

• PPN 01/20 enables public authorities to enter into and modify contracts due to extreme emergency without following the usual procedures; however, they do still have to follow certain rules.
• PPN 02/20 requires authorities to ensure that suppliers at risk are in a position to resume normal contract delivery once the coronavirus outbreak is over by paying them as normal even if service delivery is disrupted or temporarily suspended. To facilitate this, suppliers will need to act on an open book basis, make cost information available to the contracting authority, and continue to pay employees and sub-contractors.

Annual MOTs for all heavy goods vehicles (HGVs) and public service vehicles (PSVs) have been suspended for up to three months from 21 March 2020. Vehicles will be automatically issued with a certificate of temporary exemption (CTE) and must continue to be maintained, kept safe to drive (roadworthy) and operate within the terms of operators’ licence conditions. Further information has been published by the DVSA.

Businesses should continue to follow the most up-to-date Government guidance and members can contact Build UK with any construction-specific queries. We cannot guarantee to respond to every message; however, if we are aware of sector-specific issues we have the opportunity to address them collectively.

To find out the latest information as soon as it becomes available, please follow Build UK on Twitter and LinkedIn.

Financial Support for Businesses