Support from Lloyds Bank safeguards jobs at demolition company

A demolition contractor has secured the jobs of all 33 of its staff during the coronavirus shutdown with support from Lloyds Bank.

Chelmsford-based Northeast Demolition UK Ltd work with large construction firms and housebuilders across South-East, East and South London to clear industrial, commercial and residential sites, demolishing all types of buildings from houses to tower blocks.

The company has decided to pause all work in order to safeguard the safety and wellbeing of staff during the COVID-19 outbreak and has put its workforce on furlough.

Lloyds Bank has provided a package of financial support to help with the firm’s cashflow during this period to enable it to pay its staff in advance of receiving a furlough grant from the government.

The Lloyds Bank support means the firm can meet its payroll obligations during this period and hasn’t had to make redundancies.

Following the government guidelines set out on Monday 23rd March to cease all essential works, Shaun Harvey, managing director at Northeast Demolition, said: “A lot of the sites we were working on are for hotels or flats. These aren’t essential buildings, such as hospitals for example, so we made the decision to pause all work as from Wednesday 25th March.

“As a demolition contractor we are the first on site. This can make welfare facilities and social distancing very challenging and we don’t want to risk the wellbeing of our staff and colleagues for a single second.

“At the point of making the decision to furlough our employees, we didn’t have much information about how it would work, not being eligible for the business interruption loan and not knowing when we would get the furlough funding from the government. Having additional credit from the bank meant we could safeguard jobs in the short-term.

“I contacted Stuart, my relationship manager at Lloyds Bank, and he was very quick to respond. He did a remarkable job for us and put additional credit in place within a few days. Lloyds Bank has been by our side throughout the past few weeks and I can’t fault them at all.”

Stuart Wiggins, SME relationship manager at Lloyds Bank, said: “Northeast Demolition is a responsible business that has made the welfare of its staff its number one priority.

“Pausing all contracts naturally impacts cashflow. Whilst government support is available, businesses need help in the short-term to meet their payroll obligations. We’re working quickly to make sure that businesses have the funding they urgently need.”