The managing director of a Cumbrian housebuilder says it is now "100 per cent committed" to building work despite struggling to get some of the supplies it needs due to coronavirus restrictions in Scotland.

Nicky Gordon, of Penrith’s Genesis Homes, said the firm had continued work in some form throughout the Covid-19 crisis.

“We did actually remain open right throughout because the construction industry wasn’t supposed to be closed down entirely and we kept a skeleton staff on site,” he said.

“We fully re-opened on May 11 and since then we’ve been 100 per cent committed to building.”

However, he said it had still been finding it difficult to get hold of some supplies.

“We are actually being quite badly affected by what’s happening in Scotland and our supply chain from there,” he said.

“In particular, silo mortar is all supplied out of the south of Glasgow and the plant is completely closed and has been since March 23.

“That’s causing us a knock-on effect and it’s quite slow to get a supply from alternative places.”

Despite this, he said other parts of the supply chain were working as normal and he did not foresee any lengthy delays in construction.

Genesis Homes is currently carrying out work at sites in Brigham, Burgh-by-Sands, Cumwhinton and Armathwaite, with work due to begin on others at Whitehaven and Hackthorpe.

“There is certainly a willingness from the majority of the supply chain to really get going,” said Nicky.

“I think we are looking at a bit of a pause rather than anything that is going to have long term detriment.

“At the moment we are treating it as a pause and an extension of time really.”

He said he expected developers to continue to look for land and make applications for new housing projects, although the effects of the coronavirus crisis on the market were not yet clear.

“I think developers will still want to ensure they’ve got a supply of pipeline development sites,” he said.

“Planning can be a slow process so you wouldn’t want to delay your pipeline coming through.

“I think there will be a mixture of the slowdown of construction which will bring a reduced number of houses, but I think there will still be a demand there.

“It will be interesting to see what demand is like compared to supply.

“Over and above that I am expecting there to be a number of stimulus packages from the Government.

“We have been involved in a number of strategic conversations with the housing minister and the House Builders Federation about a potential pause in stamp duty to act as a stimulus to the market and that would be significant.”

He said workers on its sites were adapting well to doing their job amid the coronavirus restrictions.

“I think we’ve all become accustomed to (social distancing) in our personal lives,” he said.

“We’ve learned from that in terms of what we’ve done on site with distancing and staggered start times and canteen use and only having particular numbers of people in each work area - it’s just something we’ve quickly become accustomed to.

“We were slightly concerned we would see a slow down in output and productivity because of that. I think it’s actually caused better organisation. It’s a positive in many ways.”