Pandemic Problems

COVID AND CONSTRUCTION: HOW THE PANDEMIC HAS AFFECTED THE INDUSTRY

John Bampkin, chief executive of the Norman Piette Group and chair of the Guernsey Construction Forum, reflects on the past year and shares his thoughts on how the island can support the industry going forward.

A great new job, a new country and a wonderful new life in the Channel Islands – it all sounded so perfect …

Then reality hit with a global pandemic, two island lockdowns, no visits from family and a twicepostponed wedding date to contend with. Altogether, it has meant that my first 15 months on the island of Guernsey have been interesting to say the least.

A second lockdown within 12 months swept through the Bailiwick at the end of January and lasted for eight weeks, having another huge impact on the construction industry and affecting most areas of island life.

Construction is such a massive part of all of our lives and whenever its progress is impaired, we all see and feel the benefits it usually brings. The importance of our infrastructure for connectivity and the buildings that we live, work, study and spend leisure time in is vital to everyone’s health and wellbeing. Having shelter is a basic human need along with food, water and relationships and all of these are affected by the environments we live and move around in.

People underestimate the impact that indoor surroundings have on their health, wellbeing and actual mood. The temperature, acoustics, moisture content, lighting and ergonomics are constantly assisting us or hindering us depending on the quality of the build environment. We have clearly come a long way from our early caves and mud huts, but I believe we still have a long way to go before we can

all say that our indoor ambience is adding to our quality of life.

Whenever we talk about the construction industry, we always talk about the impact to the economy. While that impact is clearly very important, the industry has a much bigger footprint than that. When the maintenance of our roads, drainage, sewage, air and sea ports is affected and new buildings that we desperately need are delayed, it hits the health and prosperity of the island in so other many ways.

We cannot, and must not, underestimate the importance of having a fully functioning, effective and efficient construction industry available to the Bailiwick at all times. This was partially achieved during lockdown with many ‘emergency works’ still allowed to continue but the restrictions on the number of people working in any one environment, even outdoor ones, was debilitating for a quick recovery.

If short, sharp lockdowns are to become something that we may have to live with then we have to find ways to keep the main wheels of the industry turning, albeit while complying with safe operational requirements and not perpetuating the spread of any viruses. We have to try to avoid everything grinding to a full stop every time there is a breakout.

For example, at our Norman Piette premises at Bulwer Avenue we have a 4.7 acre site with nine separate warehouses on it. In any other part of Guernsey this would constitute an industrial estate sized set-up with many different businesses present. Yet strictly abiding by the rules of stage 1 we were only allowed eight people on site plus seven delivery drivers to service the massive demand of the industry as it began to awaken from its four weeks of inactivity. Our premises would normally have approximately 100 people working there on any given day. As the largest supplier of materials to the industry this really hindered everybody’s ability to return to work in stage 1 and also into stage 2, albeit to a lesser degree when we had approximately 30 people working at any one time. We had to work up to three shifts a day from 6.30am until 11pm at night on some occasions to try to keep the deliveries going and the quay clear of building materials coming into the islands.

The feedback from other parts of the industry was similar and based on the same concerns of lockdowns becoming something we may have to live with.

If we take the situation with the industry apprentices at the College of Further Education, they have two main aspects to their learning – practical and theoretical. Clearly during a full lockdown the practical side of their curriculum will be impaired but the theoretical side can continue remotely with the right connectivity. Fast internet speeds are required now and have to be a priority for the island’s immediate future. This will help to get these vital people through their training and into our industry in time to support the States’ new infrastructure and building plans.

Having a captive audience, with many apprentices unable to attend work in the early stages of lockdown, presented an opportunity for the theoretical elements of their education to be taught during this period. Thankfully as we entered stage 2, apprentices were able to return to the College of Further Education on 8 March. After this date, apprentices and our lecturers had uninterrupted access to the practical environments which has meant that progress is in line with expectations, and the lockdown should not have an impact on the timely completion of the apprentice’s qualifications. Our main building contractors on Guernsey welcomed the clarity from the States regarding open borders from 1 July. Since March 2020, Guernsey’s labour pool has been finite and they suddenly lost the flexibility to bring in specialist resources. In addition, after the first lockdown the industry quickly became very busy. This would normally have resulted in increased resources being attracted to the island - in other words, the demand would have been met by increased supply. That didn’t happen due to border restrictions, consequently the local industry has been working close to full capacity ever since.

As the border opens to free movement on 1 July 2021, Guernsey will become attractive for immigrant labour once again. To enable us to keep this at the right levels and employ as much local labour as possible we need the apprenticeship programs to continue and actually increase and we need to have input with the States into when the major infrastructure projects start and end so we can best utilise the local workforce & skills available.

All of this needs to be and can be done safely with the required social distancing measures observed – we just need to work together to make that happen.

This is why the Guernsey Construction Forum was formed at the end of 2020 and will now hopefully work closely with the States to learn from our experiences and make sure we are fit for purpose, can provide the island with the skilled resources it needs to help the people of the Bailiwick and the industry recover and grow.AS THE BORDER OPENS TO FREE MOVEMENT ON 1 JULY 2021, GUERNSEY WILL BECOME ATTRACTIVE FOR IMMIGRANT LABOUR ONCE AGAIN.