A survey conducted by the BiKBBI has revealed that thousands of home improvement jobs have had to be cancelled as a result of the 'pingdemic'. The survey of 5,000 KBB installers found that 47% of respondents had been forced to cancel jobs, after either the customer or installer had been 'pinged' by the NHS COVID app, and that based on the average cost of a job, installers have lost out to the tune of thousands of pounds worth of income.
Calling for Government to exempt skilled tradespeople operating safe working procedures in people's homes from having to isolate automatically if they or their customers are 'pinged' by the COVID19 app, Damian Walters (pictured), BiKBBI CEO, said: “Installers are taking a hit on their incomes that’s as unnecessary as it is unfair. They’ve spent the last year working to incredibly safe procedures, meaning that they could continue serving customers throughout the pandemic. For at least half of them to now have to stop working – and earning – as the rest of the country recovers just seems utterly ridiculous.
“The disruption for customers is also a real kick in the teeth for people who want to invest in their homes after such a tough time and could create a crisis for the industry. Jobs won’t be able to be rescheduled for many months, creating the risk of a wave of cancellations. Having invested to meet the currently high demand, KBB retailers and manufacturers could find themselves at a breaking point in the coming months.
He concluded: “Public safety and keeping the virus under control of course needs to be the highest priority, which is why KBB installers introduced robust safe working procedures over the last year. Recognising this by adding them to the list of workers exempt from automatic isolation would be an incredibly sensible thing for the Government to do.”
