Pt.1 J&L Carpentry – The New Normal

Cavendish Professionals spoke to Jack Nugent, Manager, J&L Carpentry Limited to discuss the effects Covid-19 has had on his business. Over this 3-part series we look at how J&L Carpentry have managed throughout the pandemic. What precautions they have taken to manage staff’s safety and their future plans.

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The Beginning

January 2020 saw companies setting targets, putting in place new budgets for the year ahead, fast forward 8 weeks later and the UK was hit with Covid-19 and Boris Johnson made his announcement; the UK was in lockdown. The news evidently had a huge effect on companies nationwide. Many businesses had to cease trading, including some parts of the construction industry.
“The impact of COVID-19 on the construction industry is unprecedented. Although the industry is well poised for risk, nobody could have predicted the effects of a global pandemic and how quickly we would have to adapt.” Jack Nugent

The huge impact

As Jack highlighted the construction industry’s DNA has safety at the heart of it. However, 4 months on and still trying to manage the ongoing effects of COVID-19, is difficult for all companies within the industry.  Especially projects that requires a larger workforce. It is having a massive impact on construction projects nationwide. “The experience has been a steep learning curve, but we are starting to adjust to the ‘new normal’.”

“Convening with government guidelines, all of our current projects were shut down during the height of the pandemic but have been slowly opening up again since the lockdown was lifted.” The lockdown rules have now been relaxed but social distancing measures still remain in place. The guidelines continue to have a knock-on effect on construction companies fulfilling projects.

The government’s recent strategy announcement to get the country’s economy back up and running is all based on the construction industry being one of the first to get back to work. This might be possible with some sites but is that being replicated throughout the industry. “The relaxation of the social distancing and lockdown means that we at J&L Carpentry have been able to commence projects We are currently back to about 80% capacity and labour is steadily increasing week on week. This is a really promising sign of the industry’s ability to bounce back quickly from the huge disruption caused by COVID.”

The Future

However, we know that this is the start of a long road and with the anticipation that there will be a second wave of infection of COVID 19, construction companies need to be even more stringent with their implementation of their safety regulations. Part 2 of this series will cover how J&L Carpentry have implemented the government guidelines of social distancing and ensuring their workers are kept safe.
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