Further to our recent Insight, Government guidance for the construction industry - what guidance? Well, there's now a little bit of clarity…, a major difficulty for construction companies in keeping their sites open and productive has been the reduction in suppliers and builders' merchants being open for business to provide the necessary supplies.

Whilst a number have remained open, this is clearly not sufficient to meet the demand and so the CLC has written an open letter to the Government with a plea for the Government to support the Construction Industry in various ways including a request to "give very clear and visible encouragement that the production of building materials continues, if at all possible, and that electrical, plumbing and general builders' merchants remain open so that essential maintenance and construction works can continue – and that the workers doing this are recognised, supported and appreciated."

It remains to be seen whether the Government will respond to this and the other requests but we can but hope.

We will continue to provide regular updates on this issue.