ACE has welcomed announcements by the Chancellor on 12 May that he is extending the current Government furlough scheme until the end of October.

A Construction Leadership Council (CLC) survey found that more than eight out of ten (84%) companies in the industry were using the scheme, with nearly half (48%) furloughing more than half of their staff.  Furthermore, eight out of ten (80%) claimed that without the Government's support they would be faced with the prospect of having to make large scale redundancies.

Commenting on the announcement Hannah Vickers, chief executive of the Association for Consultancy and Engineering (ACE) said: "I am delighted that the Chancellor has agreed to extend and introduce flexibility to the furlough scheme as proposed by the Construction Leadership Council and ACE on behalf of the industry as this will provide confidence to both employers and workers that they will no longer face a cliff-edge in June.

"This new part-time furloughing scheme is in everyone's interests as it allows companies to bring back more staff on a rota and prevent steep cuts to employment while limiting the cost to the taxpayer. We will await the full details of how the scheme will be implemented in due course, but it’s the right headline commitment from the Government."

Over the bank holiday weekend (29 May 2020), the Chancellor provided more details on the updated "flexible furloughing", which he summarised in this video on twitter. We have updated our own guidance (linked below) to reflect these changes.

🚨Flexible furloughing is starting one month early and employers will only be asked to start contributing to furloughed salaries from September.

Watch below to see how our eight-month job support scheme is evolving👇 pic.twitter.com/SPqK9JwT91

— Rishi Sunak (@RishiSunak) May 29, 2020

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