Several of Britain’s largest carmakers and housebuilders are planning to return to work as businesses cautiously emerge from the coronavirus shutdown.
Jaguar Land Rover and Aston Martin announced they will restart some production next month, while Taylor Wimpey, one of the UK’s biggest housebuilders, said its building sites would reopen from May 4 and Vistry Group, formerly known as Bovis Homes, is aiming for April 27.
JLR will restart production at plants in Slovakia, Austria and at Solihull in the UK from May 18 and will produce limited numbers of its most lucrative models, such as Range Rover and Range Rover Sport, to be sold to buyers in China, where customers are returning to dealerships as the world’s largest car market comes out of lockdown.
About 2,000 staff will return to the factory in Solihull, which will run on a single shift rather than the usual three.
Its other UK assembly plants in Halewood and Castle Bromwich will remain closed until demand in Europe and North America recovers.
“In China, we are beginning to see recovery in vehicle sales,” the company said. “Our joint venture plant in Changshu has been in operation since the middle of February.”
Aston Martin will reopen its St Athan factory in Wales at the start of May to produce the DBX vehicle that is critical to the brand’s future. Its main plant in Gaydon, Warwickshire, will remain closed for the time being.
As factories and businesses across Europe begin to restart operations, companies must balance the need to generate revenues with worker safety.
Nissan this week opened the engine plant at its Sunderland site for some workers, in order to test safety and distancing measures before it restarts its main operations.
Carmakers have drawn up a variety of safety measures, including running production lines at a slower pace to allow more space between workers. Housebuilders are focusing on jobs that can be done by one person where possible, and issuing protective equipment for anyone involved in multi-person jobs such as fitting windows.
“We’ve had to be confident we can do work safely,” said Taylor Wimpey’s chief executive Pete Redfern.
The government stopped short of forcing building sites to close, but housebuilders and their subcontractors decided that work could not continue safely and shut almost all sites last month.
“This will be a gradual restart rather than a big bang,” Mr Redfern added, saying it would take until June for sites to reach 80 per cent of normal activity levels and that the company would focus on getting back to full capacity for 2021.
Taylor Wimpey will not be reopening sites in Scotland, where Nicola Sturgeon’s government has taken a stricter line on construction work.
Vistry is returning to work just a month after sites were shut.
The housebuilding industry had previously expressed fears that sites could stay closed until July.
Other builders will welcome the restart, said Chris Millington, an analyst at Numis. “They want someone to be a bit ahead. The supply chain will not open up for one housebuilder.”
“There are plans afoot for pretty much all of them [housebuilders] to be reopening,” Mr Millington added. “I’d be surprised if we don’t hear more in the next week.”
Any resumption in activity will also be welcomed by materials suppliers and subcontractors.
Shares in Vistry rose more than 8 per cent to £7.87 when the market opened on Thursday morning, while Taylor Wimpey rose 6 per cent to £1.43.
https://news.google.com/__i/rss/rd/articles/CBMiP2h0dHBzOi8vd3d3LmZ0LmNvbS9jb250ZW50LzY0ZTYxYTc0LTYzYTYtNGMxYS05Y2E0LTAwMjc0MDY3ODM0ZtIBP2h0dHBzOi8vYW1wLmZ0LmNvbS9jb250ZW50LzY0ZTYxYTc0LTYzYTYtNGMxYS05Y2E0LTAwMjc0MDY3ODM0Zg?oc=5
2020-04-23 15:29:13Z
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