One of the country's fastest growing Construction Trade Associations, National Association of Building Contractors, has criticised the narrow scope of the Governments' new furlough programme, which this time covers two-thirds of the wages at firms forced to close.

James Hopkins, CEO of NABC said: "Paying two thirds of the wages at businesses that are forced to close, particularly in the already hard hit construction sector, is frankly not enough after so many months of restricted trade and closures.

"Whilst staff will invariably be a major cost to these businesses, there are many other costs they will not get assistance with. Let’s not forget, a huge number of zero hour contracted staff work in construction and it would make no commercial sense for these businesses to cover a proportion of staff wages when they simply could reduce their hours to zero.

"The government should not force businesses to close without a more comprehensive package of support in place, as without one, many furloughed employees will not have a job to return to."

For him, the new furlough scheme does not reflect the range and scale of costs that businesses are struggling with under lockdown

www.nabc.org.uk