London housebuilder Durkan restarts work on sites

Durkan has said it will begin a phased reopening of its sites next week.

The London and Home Counties housebuilder, which is working on the Southmere Village scheme (pictured) for Peabody at the Thamesmead regeneration, will start to remobilise jobs from next Monday with Durkan introducing a number of measures to maintain social distancing protocols.

These include staggered shift patters, restrictions on site meetings, extra hand washing points and more welfare facilities while an enhanced cleaning regime of all communal areas is planned.

Four sites will open initially with the remaining eight being phased in throughout the rest of this month.

The decision to re-open sites comes after the UK’s largest housebuilders - Barratt, Taylor Wimpey, Persimmon and Bellway - have all announced plans to return to sites in teh last two weeks.

Housing secretary Robert Jenrick has urged other housebuilders to follow suit, as long as safe working practices can be established.

Durkan said its head office in Elstree, Hertfordshire, will also re-open for a small number of key staff. It added: “Additional staff will return to the office on a phased basis to ensure social distancing is maintained, with some employees continuing to work from home where possible.”

The move comes after another London firm, Higgins Homes, reopened eight sites yesterday after stopping work at the end of March.

But the firm said its offices along with most sales and marketing suites were staying shut.