Building sites will be allowed to stay open late and at weekends under law change to help construction industry catch up, government source says

• Ministers propose to allow sites to reopen in an effort to help building industry
•  Persimmon and Taylor Wimpey both announced they would reopen last week
•  Britain's biggest brick manufacturer, Ibstock, will reopen from tomorrow
•  Increasing concerns over job losses and financial impact on construction firms
•  Pete Redfern of Taylor Wimpey has pushed Government to help end lockdown

Construction sites will be allowed to stay open late and during weekends in a proposed move by ministers to help firms get back to work and avoid worsening impact wreaked by the coronavirus outbreak on the economy. 

A proposed temporary override of measures that typically prohibit building work being undertaken at night or on Sundays will be introduced to help firms 'catch up' on projects delayed by the national lockdown, which began on March 23, a government source has told The Sunday Telegraph. 

Last week, a number of construction giants, including Persimmon and Taylor Wimpey, both annnounced they would be resuming work and reopening sites, while Britain's biggest brick manufacturer, Ibstock, will open the doors of 21 brickworks from Monday.

Proposals are underway to allow construction sites to reopen, like this one in Lewisham, south east London, and allow them to stay open late and at weekends to help the industry 'catch up'

The proposed move to get the constuction industry back up and running comes amid fears that contractors are getting 'increasingly concerned' about their work being terminated if their contracts have not been reactivated by May.

'Most construction contracts have a clause that if a subcontractor stops work for two months the employer is able to end the contract… it is particularly time sensitive for this industry,' said the source.  

The proposal has been mooted as  the head of one of Britain's biggest housebuilders yesterday urged the Government to set out an exit strategy to get the country moving again.

Pete Redfern, the chief executive of FTSE 100 firm Taylor Wimpey, has broken ranks with rival bosses to push the Government to outline a plan to end lockdown.

Construction employees are said to be increasingly concerned their contracts will be terminated if building sites are not allowed to resume by the beginning of May

Redfern told The Mail on Sunday the exit strategy does not necessarily need a fixed date, but insisted it was time to give businesses 'a direction that people can plan around'.

Taylor Wimpey last week became one of the first businesses to announce plans to resume work after it formulated a way to restart construction safely. It was joined by rivals Persimmon and Bovis Homes owner Vistry.

Pete Redfern is pushing the Government to outline a plan to end lockdown

Redfern said Taylor Wimpey had spent the past four weeks hatching a plan to return to business while meeting the Government's lockdown guidelines and social distancing rules.

The builder has been in regular contact with No 10 and the Treasury, which Redfern said had given supportive signals for its initiative.

Redfern said most jobs on building sites could be carried out while maintaining social distancing measures. 

Builders performing tasks where that is not possible – such as heavy manual lifting jobs involving more than one person – would be equipped with personal protective equipment.

Taylor Wimpey plans to reopen the majority of its building sites from May 4 in England and Wales, but will keep sites in Scotland shut in accordance with Scottish guidelines.

The construction industry is not the only one calling on an easing of restrictions imposed by the lockdown.

Ministers are also under pressure to allow garden centres to open immediately amid warnings the lockdown will force nurseries to dump 200 million unsold plants and hand rival European firms a major advantage.

Writing in today's Mail on Sunday, Tory Environment Secretary Theresa Villiers said it was illogical to allow supermarket chains to sell plants and flowers, but not garden centres and nurseries.

She writes that the Government ‘should feel able to allow nurseries and garden centres to reopen’ because they would ‘find it easier to comply with social distancing than other shops because of their larger footprint, much of it outdoors’.

In other signs that businesses are chomping at the bit to get restarted, more than half of B&Q's stores in 155 locations have reopened, while Homebase has followed suit with 20 of its stores. 

Meanwhile, food retailer Pret A Manger, Burger King and KFC have reopened a limited number of stores as a takeaway and/or delivery service across the UK.

An obvious increase of traffic on the roads and the sight of more people out and about in the unseasonal weather has added to growing unease in Downing Street that the country is becoming restless under the restrictions to everyday life. 

Tory donors, Cabinet ministers and Sir Keir Starmer have all told Boris Johnson he must publish his strategy for loosening restrictions as the Prime Minister prepares to return to work tomorrow. 

But the end to widespread restirctions in the wake of more than 20,000 deaths from coronavirus in the UK is still not in sight.

Dominic Raab today slapped down those calls as he said Britain is still at a 'delicate and dangerous' stage of the outbreak and the focus must remain on slowing the spread of the disease and reducing the number of deaths. 

The Foreign Secretary did insist ministers are carrying out their 'homework' on how to lift rules in the future but he stressed 'frankly it is not responsible to start speculating about the individual measures'.