Redrow “furloughs” employees and closes sites

Redrow is closing its sites “with immediate effect” and putting a "significant" proportion of employees on "furlough" under the government's new Job Retention Scheme.

Furloughed employees are those asked to stop working but not made redundant - the government is covering 80% of their salaries during the coronavirus crisis.

The firm said that it had been targeting construction operations on plots that were due to complete over the coming weeks but said this “has become increasingly impracticable as our supply chain has been significantly impacted in recent days. As a result the board has now decided to go further and commence, with immediate effect, an orderly and safe closure of all of our sites and offices.”

The company, while stressing that it has a strong balance sheet with total net assets in the region of £1.6 billion, says it has begun discussions with its syndicate of six banks about additional committed banking facilities over and above its current £250 million revolving credit facility.

“It is our intention to increase the additional 'accordion' facility of £50 million that is available to us to £100 million,” Redrow said. “We have also submitted an application to the Bank of England for eligibility for the government's COVID-19 …