Friday Update

Good evening to you all.

Whilst we are slowly returning to ‘business as usual’, albeit in the form that normal now looks like, I felt it important to maintain our ‘Friday Update’ to keep in touch with you all, especially with many of you remaining furloughed. As always, I do hope you are all keeping safe and well.

Works are progressing well across all sites with positive reports that productivity is improving each week, and numbers present on site are slowly increasing towards the levels achieved prior to the pandemic. Everyone continues to work exceptionally well whilst complying to our enhanced safety procedures and the social distancing guidelines we have adopted, and I fully appreciate that this is by no means a straightforward task, especially in managing a diverse number of trades at any one time, especially those not directly employed by us. With this in mind I would like to wholeheartedly congratulate all our returning site teams and express sincere gratitude for the enthusiasm and dedication shown in ensuring our sites can operate as safely as possible in an extremely challenging environment. The safety reports coming through from our advisors H&K are all citing how well our sites are being managed which is incredibly reassuring and gives us great confidence to keep pressing ahead with construction. Well done to you all.

It was a pleasure to take some time away from the office in the week to visit the team at Kings Hill to see how they are coping on a site that continues to prove challenging in more ways than one, aside from the pandemic, and they are doing a superb job. Thank you for the tour Dorrian, David and Jason, it was great to see how the project is progressing and I do hope myself and my co directors will be able to visit many more of you over the coming weeks.

More members of the team will continue to return over the next two weeks to support our continued remobilisation, and we anticipate many more will follow thereafter, dependant on continued improvement in productivity and ongoing directive from the government. If you have not been informed of your return yet then please do continue to sit tight as the furlough scheme works to protect your employment with us, and do not be disheartened as almost half of all staff remain in this position. Staff are un-furloughed according to the specific role they play in supporting the business or on a particular site and we are also focused on safeguarding the more vulnerable members of our team, either due to their own health conditions or those of their families. These really are unprecedented times and we are guiding the business forwards as best we can so please do remain patient. As always, if you do have any concerns, questions or anxieties caused by any aspect of the pandemic, the Directors remain on hand to support you.

Thank you to all those who have promptly updated their email footer to adopt the new design which will remain in place throughout the pandemic, and if you have not done so already I would ask that you please do so as soon as possible to ensure unity in our branding and a consistent message to encourage everyone to stay safe and well.

In line with our encouragement to ‘Stay Active’ I’m delighted to update you that, thanks to the concerted efforts of so many of you in walking, running and cycling as part of our Jenner (Virtual) Roadtrip we have made it all the way across the Atlantic ocean and safely onto dry land! In fact, if calculations are correct we are currently in Washington DC! Logging 3836 miles is a fabulous achievement so well done to everyone who has contributed to this and do keep those miles coming.

That’s all from me for now other than to wish you all an enjoyable and relaxing Bank Holiday weekend with your families. Let’s hope the sun continues to shine.

Kind regards

Martin