In conjunction with the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG), The Home Builders Federation (HBF) has produced the below ‘Charter for Safe Working Practice’ to ensure that home building activity is carried out safely and in accordance with the advice of Government and Public Health England during the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
Through adherence to this Charter, the industry can continue to provide much needed additions to housing supply and play its part in the country’s economic recovery while delivering on its top priority: protecting the health and safety of the home building workforce, visitors to site and the local community.
The Charter is a public facing commitment which supports the very detailed protocols individual builders have in place to ensure safe working on sites.
Charter for Safe Working Practice
During the coronavirus pandemic the health and wellbeing of our workforce, visitors to site and the local community is our number one priority.
Home-building has a major role to play in helping our economy recover from the impact of coronavirus. The Government is supportive of construction activity continuing where it is safe to do so. Home building supports hundreds of thousands of jobs and thousands of businesses. It also provides billions of pounds to improve local infrastructure in the areas where new homes are built.
We all share the responsibility to ensure that this site can operate safely and in accordance with Government advice.
We will do that by:
- Working with our workforce, subcontractors and suppliers to develop and share detailed safe working practices
- Only undertaking operations we know can be carried out safely
- Establishing safe access and egress to the site
- Providing safe shared facilities
- Giving all site visitors a safety induction to ensure they fully understand the measures in place on the site to protect them and others
- Ensuring measures are in place to enable anyone on site to abide by social distancing guidance and taking mitigating action to reduce the risk of transmission where not possible
- Having clean welfare facilities and hand washing points and sanitisers across the site
- Developing detailed policies that allow customers to visit sites and view homes safely and in accordance with all social distancing guidelines
- Communicating with our neighbours so they are aware we are working to Government guidelines
- Ensuring that compliance with these rules is monitored very closely. Any person found to be breaking these rules will be removed from site and may not be allowed to return.
We are asking all visitors to our site to:
- Register with the site management team upon arrival for a coronavirus briefing
- Stay at home if they have any coronavirus symptoms or are living with someone who has
- Apply government guidance for safer travel, including the avoidance of use of public transport where possible
- Take time to understand and comply with all guidance provided, in particular with regards to social distancing
- Report any concerns to the site manager/coordinator named below
Our trained site management and sales teams will be able to answer any questions workers and visitors may have.
These rules will be updated according to any changes in Government guidance or Construction Leadership Council Site Operating Procedures.
The following builders have signed up to the charter (the list includes all the country’s major house builders):
- Anwyl
- Aquinna Homes
- Archway Homes
- Autograph Homes
- Avant Homes
- Baker Estates
- Barratt Developments
- Beal Homes
- Bellway Homes
- Berkeley Group
- Berkeley De Veer
- Bewley Homes
- Blackthorn Homes
- Bloor Homes
- Burrington Estates
- Cameron Homes
- CALA
- Cavanna Homes
- Churchill Retirement Living
- City and Country Group
- Countrylife
- Countryside
- Crest Nicholson
- Croudace Homes
- Curo Group
- Darren Smith Homes
- Davidsons Homes
- Devine Homes
- Eccleston Homes
- Elan Homes Limited
- Esquire Developments
- Fairgrove Homes
- Fairview New Homes
- Fenwood Estates
- Galliard Homes
- Galliers Homes
- Genesis Homes
- Gentoo Homes
- Glade Homes
- Halsbury Homes
- Hayfield and Living Space
- Hazeley Developments
- Hill
- Hills Homes Developments Limited
- Hopkins Homes
- Inland Homes
- JAB Short
- Jelson Ltd
- Keepmoat Homes
- Kier Living
- Kingerlee Homes
- Lagan Homes
- Larkfleet Homes
- Lendlease
- Lifestory Group
- Lilyford
- Lioncourt Homes
- London Square
- Lovell
- Mactaggart and Mickel
- Mandale Homes
- Meadowview Homes
- McCarthy & Stone
- Miller Homes
- Millwood Designer Homes
- MJ Gleeson
- Morris Homes
- Mulgrave Properties
- Nicholas King Homes
- NU Living
- Oakmere Homes
- Octagon
- Persimmon Homes
- Places for People
- Prospect Homes
- Rectory Homes
- Redrow Homes
- Robertson Homes
- Rio Homes & Estates
- Rose Builders
- Rowland Homes
- Russell Armer Homes
- Ruskin Properties
- Seddon
- Shropshire Homes
- Spitfire Bespoke Homes
- St Modwen
- Strata Homes
- Stratfield Homes
- Stewart Milne
- Stonebond Properties
- Strongvox
- Storey Homes
- Taylor Wimpey
- Telford Homes
- Thakeham
- Troy Homes
- Village Developments
- Vistry Group
- Wheeldon Brothers Ltd
- William Davis
- William Lacey Group
- Wonderful Homes
Allied organisations:
- Construction Products Association (CPA)
- Consult 44 Ltd
- EGGER UK
- FLI Carlow
- GTC
- H+H UK
- Ideal Standard
- LABC Warranty
- NFRC
- NHBC
- Openreach
- Premier Guarantee
- STH Westco
- TriConnex
- Virgin Media
- Wienerberger
Builders merchants:
- Builders Merchants Federation (BMF)
- EnviroVent Ltd
- JS Wright & Co Ltd
- Travis Perkins
- Saint Gobain
- Wolseley
- Grafton Group (CPI Mortars, NDI Nationwide Drywall and Insulation, Civils & Lintels, Buildbase, The Timber Group) as well as the largest independent merchant, MKM
The Industry Charter for Safe Working Practice can be downloaded here.
Image: Roger Utting / Adobe Stock
