A quarter of housing sites have restarted

Just over a quarter of residential construction sites have reopened since lockdown, despite government pressure on housebuilders to reopen sites.

Exclusive data provided to Housing Today by construction data firm Barbour ABI shows that work has recommenced on around 900 sites previously closed by the coronavirus lockdown, out of a total of 3,412 “live” construction sites.

However, together with the residential schemes that carried on throughout the crisis, the restarts mean building work is now happening on just under two-thirds of all live housebuilding sites.

Hence just over a third of residential construction sites – 1,172 out of 3,412 – remain shut.

With the government having urged builders to keep sites open since the start of lockdown, a message reiterated by the prime minister when he announced the easing of lockdown measures two weeks ago, the government may be disappointed that more sites haven’t re-opened.

The figures from Barbour ABI’s database of construction schemes worth more than £100,000, show that as of yesterday, 910 schemes have now restarted, accounting for 27% of all “live” residential schemes.

However, with larger projects more likely to have restarted, the projects to have re-commenced are due to produce 147,735 homes, exactly a third of the 442,713 homes in construction. In total, schemes producing 72% of the UK’s pipeline of units under construction are now on site.

The figures include housebuilding sites in Scotland, where residential construction work has been banned under coronavirus guidance from the Scottish Government.

The news follows the announcements by a series of housebuilders and housing associations in the last month of plans to commence a phased re-opening of construction sites.

Barbour ABI chief economist Tom Hall said: “We received a number of reports of manufacturers restarting production and further sites reopening. However, some construction companies are still reporting some or most sites remain closed.”

In the immediate aftermath of lockdown, nearly three-quarters of housebuilding sites shut their doors, with the Construction Products Association suggesting that overall productivity may have fallen by 85% below normal levels at the height of the lockdown.

The CPA this week said that new housing starts were likely to fall by 60% this year, with overall residential construction output down by more than 40%.

The attention of major housebuilders that have re-opened sites is now turning to site productivity, with social distancing measures changing working practices and limiting staff on site. Last week Vistry said its sites were operating at 70% of usual production capacity.

The Scottish government brought in a phased lifting of its ban on “non-essential” construction work starting from this week.