I’m pretty sure house renovations are not essential construction. With everyone else making the effort to work from home and stay off public transport. This is unfair to those who are either sick or wfh listening to the noise or key workers travelling next to construction workers.
Next door to us is being renovated/extended. However the contractors stopped working last week for those reasons. There is someone there at the moment (started yesterday) but looks like they are doing some drainage works internally. I was surprised to see them turn up yesterday given the situation. But there’s only two of them and they’re not at all noisy.
One person and minor works I don’t have so much of a problem with. But this is 8 guys in a basement flat 
Also they stand outside together smoking so you have to walk between them which isn’t cool even in normal times.
I can imagine that if people are half way through a renovation say with a wall knocked down and the house supported by scaffolding then from a safety and security point of view it would be reasonable to continue and make things secure.Yet again it’s one of those million and one small things or edge cases that the blanket guidelines will struggle with. Obviously one person in a van is less of a risk than 8 people on public transport.
Yeah nobody wants their home collapsing or flooding. This is a shop being converted into flats though… and has been for a year.
Construction sites… of any type have not been asked to close, so work can continue if it is done safely. Many large construction firms have chosen to down tools, while some have not.
Many contractors and construction firms are carrying on putting lives at risk because they will get slapped by financial penalties if they overrun their contracts. That’s just plain wrong and something the government should step in to outlaw.
I believe it’s rarely the choice of individual workers to carry on regardless - especially in construction firms and in so called “key” industries, such as oil refineries and manufacturing. Many know their working conditions are unsafe and they are putting their own and their families’ lives at risk. But what is their option? If they’re not furloughed or made redundant, then the most they can hope for is Universal Credit … that is, if they have less than £16,000 savings. And many of these workers are sub contractors and won’t have pensions. Their savings - if they have any - are often their pensions.
So if their employers won’t play fair by them, what is their choice? Go sick and try to support a family on £94 a week? Not a viable option really.
It’s not as if they have any Unions worthy of their name or heritage.
Didn’t the government announce they would cover 80% of a contractors wage based on their tax returns?
I’m pretty sure in this situation they wouldn’t be slapped with a penalty, I work as a consulted with strict deadlines my project must meet which it won’t because of the ongoing issue and I can confirm you can use a pandemic as a reason.
I am talking about essential work of which this isn’t. I’m not saying it’s not a shit situation for all but either we all do it or we risk more lives because a few think it doesn’t concern them. Dragging it on by not doing the right thing is just putting more jobs at risk.
They’ve actually said only essential construction should go ahead. So major infrastructure, hospitals etc
I completely agree Chamonix. But people like oil refinery workers and construction workers are often employed by the sub contractors. So they’re a long way down the pecking order - even though in some cases very highly skilled, with decades of experience - so they’ve no choice other than going sick for the £94 per week or resigning and hoping they can qualify for Universal Credit. Unless their employer (the sub contractor) plays fair by them. And for all I know the sub contractor might be being told by the main contractor or top of the chain firm that they have to be there, even if in many cases it’s not “essential” to the country, just to the profit of the shareholders. The bosses who ultimately make these decisions are sometimes so far removed from the actual coal face that they might as well be in a real ivory tower as an imaginary one.
That is simply not correct. The official government guidance is here.
Construction sites have not been asked to close, so work can continue if it is done safely.
And this is a briefing published today by most of the industry representative organisations in consultation with the government. Excerpt following.
Updated site-operating procedures
The government has confirmed that construction sites should continue to operate during the current coronavirus pandemic. Business secretary Alok Sharma confirmed that the procedures published by the Construction Leadership Council are aligned with Public Health England (PHE) guidance that must be implemented in the workplace.
You can of course argue that your neighbour’s workers are unable to follow the current guidance, and therefore should stop work.
And I do. Also seems to be conflicting messaging from government advisors to what’s written down. Anyway I’m over it now they’ve gone home for the day, circle back in the morning 8am.
Gd evening please I could be wrong by why they doing building work as early as 8am they start with drilling and banging I told them next to me if the carry on I call police they just smiled as they dont understand it’s very annoying to hear when we cant go out so why should they
Local authorities set the operational hours for construction activity though it is pretty much standard across the country. In Lewisham it is
So you should remember that despite the discomfort this causes you, they are well within their rights to work during these hours despite the current crisis. A threat to call the police can only be an empty one unless they are in some way operating illegally.
However, if they are causing you grievance try and speak to the site manager and see if an accommodation can be made. If you are uncomfortable maybe someone in your household or another affected neighbour could do so. And if they are ignoring you please, then you might want to revert to the site owner.
But during this time where everyone should be in house and all essential work to be carried out wats the law governing this then
Sounds like you work in construction?
If you refer to that broad guidance published today it states…
Clarification that where it is not possible or safe for workers to distance themselves from each other by two metres then work should not be carried out;
( this is a basement flat with 8 Workers)
The request from Transport for London to avoid using the tube network during peak times; ( 8am - 6pm is peak time)
Indirectly. And I’m not defending the policies. Just saying how it is.
My son is a scaffolder who was working at Battersea power station. 8,000 men, 800 crowding into a canteen at a time, how is that safe?
His company downed tools 2 weeks ago, & have just says he will be off for another 4 weeks. He will get 80% of his pay.
Obviously he would rather be at work, but us happy to take this time, as he was getting increasingly worried about his working conditions & was thinking of just taking time off regardless. His wife is a secondary school teacher working from home.
My husband used to be a scaffolder & has been saying for the last month how can the sites be kept open, as a lot of people travelling on tubes are builders, how can anyone social distance in either circumstances.
I understand how hard it is for workers who are self employed, but help is out there now, albeit slow, but at least they will get the chance to stay alive!
There is help for (probably) most of the self employed, though whether they’ll be able to pick contracts up again in a few months time is another matter, as there may be the reckless who step in to hoover up the work in the meantime.
And it sounds as if your son’s employers have furloughed him and mothballed the works, which is great. But for those PAYE people whose companies haven’t furloughed them, or made them redundant, they often have no alternative but to carry on, no matter how nervous they are or how vulnerable members of their families may be.
Why aren’t the Health and Safety Exec stepping in? Useless as per. Same goes for the unions. What unions?
It’s intolerable that our government let’s this go on. My understanding is that it’s different in Scotland.
It’s simply not possible to maintain safe distances on many of these jobs. And, as you say, what about the canteens? To which I’d add the clocking on and those who travel in transit vans.
Yep I agree! & it all makes my husband so angry 
but we are at least relieved our son is away from it all & yes is being furloughed.
For some trades and sub-contractors it might also be an issue if some of their earnings are off the books and the 80% is of a much smaller sum.
If they’re off the books then I’m sorry I have no sympathy for them. NHS might be in a better state (politicians aside)