Life after lockdown: How the coronavirus pandemic is changing the way Britain builds
or a couple of weeks last month in the UK, Thistle MultiFinish building plaster, which usually retails at just over £5, was being sold on the black market for between £35 and £40.
“I started getting calls from people I haven’t heard from in years asking if I had any,” Dan Hall, a builder from Surrey — a county south-west of London — told Euronews. “There is none left, it’s all gone, it’s all been used up.”
The construction industry makes up around 10% of the British economy and was one of the last sections of the UK economy to shut down, with pictures of packed construction site canteens causing controversy days after the lockdown was announced on March 27.
In the end, said Hall, who owns his own firm, HSL Building Services, but has worked extensively on sites as well as private projects, it was the supply chain that forced UK builders to stop working, rather than any advice from the government.
wo months on, the problem remains. Even the building merchants that have reopened rely on stocks from factories, many of which are closed. Those stores that do have stock are often reluctant to deliver for fear that their staff will get sick.
“I’m doing a job at the moment and it took me a full eight hour day to get all the bits ready and supplied to the job. It would normally take me 15 minutes,” said Hall.
An industry on hold
The impact of the coronavirus pandemic and the subsequent lockdown is being felt at both ends of the construction pipeline. From sole traders working on home renovations to mega-projects employing thousands of labourers, subcontractors and craftsmen.
Roni Savage, the founder of Jonas Associates and a civil engineer, says that the industry has seen a major bottleneck due to the fact that developers are unable to sell their current housing stock, with research suggesting that £82 billion worth of property transactions in the UK are on hold.
This week, the UK government announced that estate agents would be exempted from the lockdown and could return to work. But while that is a welcome development for the housing market, it will take time for the buying and selling pipeline to start flowing again.
“You’ve had a period of seven or eight weeks when nobody has sold any of their stock. So people have thought: We’ll build out what we have but we will stop putting any sites in, we’ll stop buying new sites, we’ll stop going through planning, and that is the issue now,” Savage said.
Another issue is how to enforce guidelines on construction sites so that when work does begin again, workers are safe. One of the hardest measures to enforce at both ends of the market is a two-metre distance between workers, particularly on a busy construction site.
One method of dealing with the requirement has been staggering trades so that fewer workers are on-site at the same time, says Hall. The different trades: plumbers, plasterers, carpenters, have different hours and sites open earlier and close later to enable them not to overlap.
But in other areas, construction is actually better equipped to deal with the coronavirus compliance than other industries. Personal protective equipment (PPE), for example, has been a legal requirement and a fact of life on sites in the UK for some years.
“The attitude of wearing PPE is already part and parcel of the culture,” said Hall. “We already wear helmets, gloves, goggles, masks, coverings on your arms, safety boots, shin pads - so just to put a visor across your face isn’t going to make an awful lot of difference.”
One of the biggest challenges, however, will be hygiene, because while construction sites are far safer than they were 20 years ago, they are not an awful lot cleaner.
“It’s dirty, smelly, sweaty work - you don’t bother washing yourself down until you get home and have a shower. So there might be a cultural change,” Hall said
In those areas where it is impossible to enforce measures such as social distancing, testing will be key to ensuring that the construction industry can get moving again without either a natural end to the pandemic or a widely-available vaccine, says Savage.
There are sections of the industry - such as scaffolding or operating heavy machinery - where it is impossible not to have two workers in close proximity. In these cases, only cheap, easy and widely-available tests for COVID-19 will allow work to continue, she said.
“I think being able to come up with a system that would enable you to test on the go would be a solution. It would give us confidence: You don’t have it, so social distancing doesn’t really come into play,” she said.
Despite the uncertainty, Savage is confident that the industry will recover.
We need to continue to stay positive and we need to continue to push the government for incentives to keep the industry going and thriving. We’re not going to crash and burn, we will recover, but how long that will take I don’t know,” she said.
Life after lockdown: Will our social habits be changed forever?
Drastic changes to our routines have forced us to alter our social habits and re-evaluate our relationships - the effects of which could continue into our lives after lockdown, according to experts speaking to Euronews.
These changes could also have a significant impact on our mental health even as stringent stay-at-home measures continue to lift across Europe.
Massive levels of stress and anxiety are a big factor," clinical psychologist Dr Eddie Murphy told Euronews. "It will impact different populations in different ways, but individual stresses have been ramping up."
The Ireland-based psychologist noted that each nation would be looking at its own protections for mental health amid the pandemic, but stressed that psychological first aid would be necessary.
He said: "This would be a one-off immediate approach, and would be around for the general public to use if they are distressed."
According to Dr Murphy, the interventions being crafted are built around three specific stages: the first being broad-based for stress and anxiety, a second for generalised anxiety and "disrupted grief", and a peak level for those who could be experiencing post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
He said the interventions would be in place for everyone, but would be on a particular alert for children, those with disabilities, and the vulnerable.
There will be 'a lot of bereavement'
At the start of the crisis, "we had the preparation phase with a lot of anxiety," Dr Murphy said, adding that we had since passed through a "heroic phase, where everyone pulls together".
"We're now in the disillusioned phase, where there's going to be a lot of exhaustion and disillusion." Following this, Dr Murphy said comes the "recovery phase," which will bring "a lot of bereavement" and "disrupted grief".
Drastic changes to our routines have forced us to alter our social habits and re-evaluate our relationships - the effects of which could continue into our lives after lockdown, according to experts speaking to Euronews.
These changes could also have a significant impact on our mental health even as stringent stay-at-home measures continue to lift across Europe. "Massive levels of stress and anxiety are a big factor," clinical psychologist Dr Eddie Murphy told Euronews. "It will impact different populations in different ways, but individual stresses have been ramping up."
The Ireland-based psychologist noted that each nation would be looking at its own protections for mental health amid the pandemic, but stressed that psychological first aid would be necessary. He said: "This would be a one-off immediate approach, and would be around for the general public to use if they are distressed."
According to Dr Murphy, the interventions being crafted are built around three specific stages: the first being broad-based for stress and anxiety, a second for generalised anxiety and "disrupted grief", and a peak level for those who could be experiencing post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
He said the interventions would be in place for everyone, but would be on a particular alert for children, those with disabilities, and the vulnerable.
Funeral home workers in Belgium disinfect the body of a person who died from coronavirusAP/Francisco Seco This refers, in part, to the mourning rituals that have been entirely upended by COVID-19 as friends and relatives have been unable to properly say goodbye to loved ones due to the transmission of the disease.
Dr Murphy said: "From an Irish perspective, you have a wake where you can observe the body."But COVID-19 stops the structure [of grieving] for that group of people, and can be very significant for some. " It's 'time to re-prioritise' what matters in relationships
The effect of lockdowns across Europe aren't always negative. For many, they will have also proven to be a good opportunity to re-evaluate personal relationships. For cohabiting couples, social psychologist and relationship scientist Veronica Lamarche said partners could use the lockdown to work to "re-prioritise what they want to be getting out of these relationships."
"Think of lockdown as a clean slate. Things that weren't working well before, we can focus on and re-invest." She then noted that some couples would be feeling a strain due to unusual circumstances "bringing to light issues" when spending a lot of time together.
"Some countries will say there has been a sudden increase in divorce rate, which is partly natural because you're forced to evaluate and re-prioritise what matters," she said. But for others, she added: "Some are really valuing and appreciating the time they're able to spend with their partners.
"Before lockdown, external [factors] may have been taking away from the relationship."
According to Lamarche, strange actions from politicians on the television or watching people breach social distancing guidelines can also be a factor to draw people together.
"When a politician is behaving in a way we don't expect, it can make us lean closer into our relationship and focus on the good things in our partner and re-establish order."
She added: "When you see a neighbour who is maybe ignoring social distancing, we can turn to our relationships for a sense of normalcy and stability during those times." The 'value' of face-to-face interaction
More widely than this, an extended lack of physical face-to-face communication could prompt people to realise just "how valuable" social interactions can be, according to behavioural psychologist Benjamin Voyer.
He told Euronews: "Humans are very social by nature. The things we find to replace these [interactions] do have merit, but people are discovering how tiring virtual communication can be.
"With face-to-face communication, we can sense and communicate in a much more subtle way. "But with online interaction, we need to compensate for the lack of cues that we usually use to signal we are engaged, happy, etc.
"This makes it more tiring.
A cultural shift?
Voyer said lockdowns could also lead to a shift in values of Europe's traditional cultural mindset - from one where "everyone is expected to take care of themselves" to another where "the default is to take care of others because you expect others to take care of you."
"People are likely to develop these as they are forced to take the perspective of others and understand their difficulties - see parents realising that teaching children is much more challenging than it may look like."
Examples of this level of empathy can be widely seen amid the pandemic, such as the #StayHomeSaveLives campaign in the UK that encourages people to consider protecting the lives of others.
The personal merits of face-to-face interactions are also clear among those kept apart by lockdowns in public posts detailing things people have missed the most.
As countries such as Italy, Spain, Germany, Austria and the Czech Republic begin gradually easing their measures, Voyer said it's not immediately clear what could happen socially - but that it would likely involve trying to recreate what life was like pre-lockdown while also accepting the effect of COVID-19 will remain a part of our lives.
He said: "The first thing that is expected is for people to try and recreate something that looks like a 'normal' life. "But they have seen a virtual version of 'everything' emerging - from dinners, dates, clubbing and more. "So a next step is to rethink how we do things in the first place while facing the [social] constraints. Will habits and detrimental psychological effects fade?
Any long term changes in social habits are more likely to be personal rather than societal, Voyer said, adding that this could vary depending on our experiences of the lockdowns. He added: "Some may have discovered working from home and may want to stick to it after the lockdown.
"For others, it is about establishing a routine of video calls with friends - or getting everything delivered." For romantic relationships, professor Lamarche said new evaluations can be implemented in the life after lockdown - but warned of there being a mindful road to reach them.
She said: "There's a lot of stress, and with stress there comes conflict, and with conflict it can often be easy to displace those stresses onto our partner and wonder if they're the right one for us. "The strategy is to take a really idealised view of your partner, even if they are causing you to behave grumpily. "Try and hold onto the positives and remember they are also going through the same stresses."
For Dr Murphy, minimising stress and limiting negative mental effects pare down to a list of a few seemingly manageable things. "Sleep, rest, good nutrition, staying away from continual news feeds, and wash your hands," , adding: "And control only what you can control."
Confusion persists as England goes its own way in relaxing lockdown rules
he loosening of lockdown restrictions specific to England come into play from today – causing major disparities with the rest of the UK. The government is encouraging people in England who cannot work from home to return to their occupations - but to avoid public transport. Facemasks in public places have also been recommended.
The government has faced some criticism that it is people in the lower-paid occupations who are being asked to face the greatest risk. The opposition Labour Party has said that the new guidelines are confusing. Police leaders have commented that advice for people to avoid public transport is “unenforceable”.
Scotland's First Minister Nicola Sturgeon had said that the coronavirus is "in retreat" - but that the "risk was still too great" to consider easing the lockdown yet. She said that, despite the recent fall in the death toll and intensive care admissions, the progress that Scotland had made was as yet tentative and a premature loosening of restrictions could allow the situation to re-ignite.
Businesses would also be asked to share the cost of salary support to maintain current levels of assistance. Sunak's statement came after speculation that the scheme would be gradually reduced.
The London-based Institute for Fiscal Studies think tank said the extension of the scheme in its full form for the whole of July would cost another £10 billion, taking the total cost to about £60 billion since it was launched in March.
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