It is necessary to relaunch the construction sites interrupted by the coronavirus crisis: the government makes it a watchword and a symbol at the time of deconfinement. But the building industry warns that a full recovery is unlikely in the immediate future. "We have to be very ambitious with a goal which is the resumption of all construction sites before the end of the month," said Tuesday Julien Denormandie, Minister of Housing, on the BFMTV channel.
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Construction sites, many of which have been shutdown since the strict confinement imposed in France in mid-March against the coronavirus, have been an emblem regularly brandished by the government since the start of the crisis. They embody the economic recovery he wants to see emerge as soon as possible with the deconfinement started on Monday. That day, Bruno Le Maire, Minister of the Economy, thus reserved his first trip to a site near Saint-Germain en Laye, in the Yvelines. "It is an absolutely vital sector for the French economy (and) which is starting to recover," he stressed, explicitly referring to a "symbol".
Because the building is crucial, for several reasons. As such, its activity represents more than 5% of the French economy. In addition, the health of the sector guarantees an adequate supply of housing, essential for the proper functioning of the economy.
The brakes are "not from the companies"
However, is the government realistic? Admittedly, the recovery is a reality in the building. According to its main federation, the FFB, more than half of the sites had restarted on Tuesday and the figure should rise to two thirds by the weekend. Only, "even if we fight for all the sites to resume, it is illusory to think that we will be 100% at the end of May", warns Jacques Chanut, president of the FFB, to AFP. The brakes are "not because of the companies, but of the customers who cannot or do not want", he assures. "Unfortunately, we are not the only decision-makers".
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The bottlenecks are in fact different according to the categories of customers, ranging from individuals in the process of redoing their kitchen to major public works, including private developers who build housing. Among large customers, tensions are concentrated on one point: who should bear the cost of sanitary measures to prevent the spread of the virus on construction sites?
The building industry believes that its margins are already low and that many companies will not survive these additional costs. He therefore asks his clients to renegotiate their contracts. "When the client says: 'I take half of it', it restarts immediately, 'reports Jacques Chanut. But "in other cases, it does not resume or it will not resume for a long time," he adds, referring to blockages with "certain promoters".
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Among small customers, health concerns dominate
With regard to public procurement, the situation is even more complex, since the modification of existing contracts necessitates a review of the regulations governing invitations to tender. Bruno Le Maire certainly paved the way last week for cost sharing with public actors, but he did not give concrete details on the evolution of the rules.
There remains the very different case of small customers. With them, it is mainly health concerns that dominate: it is difficult to envisage welcoming an artisan at home when the time is to avoid contact. This is by far the first reason that forces small businesses in the sector to reduce their activity, according to a survey published in late April by Capeb, a federation that dominates the building trades.
"Individuals were afraid that we would come to move, while it is the construction sites that can most easily restart," reports AFP Patrick Liébus, president of the Capeb, even if he notes an improvement with the deconfinement. . As a sign that the government is aware of the problem, it published this week a note intended for individuals, assuring them of the absence of risk thanks to a series of health instructions in force for several weeks on construction sites.