Following the trail: a covariance plotting of the crippling effect of COVID-19 on small and medium sized-SMEs firms in the UK’s Construction Industry

Abstract

This article analyses the impact of the coronavirus pandemic among Construction Small-Medium Enterprises (CoSMEs) in the UK. A global and UK effect context-analysis is given and contrasted using a multivariate scrutiny of factors determining success or failure and the extent of covariance among contributory factors leading to closure as well as survival of the CoSMEs. Firstly, it reveals that within the UK, government interventional measures had a mixed effect. In most cases, the measures were deemed to be inadequate and too late in stopping the failure of most CoSMEs, though a substantial number survived due to government interventional measures such as the furlough schemes. Secondly, an inventory of the specific and multidimensional measures, attributed to mitigate total failure of CoSMEs is drawn including a review of the perceived benefits such as minimizing extent of total closure or declared volume of bankruptcies. Thirdly, it is observed that government decisive decisions contributed to the slowdown of the economy, and in particular construction activities. However, ranked among the interventional measures is the ‘bouncebackability’ driven measures which offered a soft landing for many CoSMEs. The study concludes that crisis-mitigating policy measures (CMPM), are necessary for the short and long-term recovery and performance of the UK economy. Understanding the composition of these measures and their rank order is critical to UK economic recovery.