Nearly half of kitchen, bedroom or bathroom fits have been cancelled as part of the NHS COVID app ‘pingdemic’, according to the British Institute of Kitchen, Bedroom and Bathroom Installation (BiKBBI).

In a survey of over 5000 kitchen, bedroom and bathroom installers, 47% have had to cancel jobs due to customers or installers being ‘pinged’ by NHS COVID app.

Based on the average cost of jobs, it means mostly self-employed sole traders and SME businesses have lost millions of pounds.

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The BiKBBI is calling for Government to take action and make skilled tradespeople exempt from automatic isolation if they or their customers are ‘pinged’ by the COVID-19 app

It has says Government should recognise the safe operating procedures installers have worked to throughout the pandemic and add vaccinated installers to the exempt list.

CEO of the BiKBBI Damian Walters commented on the effect of the ‘pingdemic’: “Installers are taking a hit on their incomes that’s as unnecessary as it is unfair.

“They’ve spent the last year working to incredibly safe procedures, meaning that they could continue serving customers throughout the pandemic.

“For at least half of them to now have to stop working – and earning – as the rest of the country recovers just seems utterly ridiculous.”

“The disruption for customers is also a real kick in the teeth for people who want to invest in their homes after such a tough time and could create a crisis for the industry.

“Jobs won’t be able to be rescheduled for many months, creating the risk of a wave of cancellations.

“Having invested to meet the currently high demand, KBB retailers and manufacturers could find themselves at a breaking point in the coming months.”

“Public safety and keeping the virus under control of course needs to be the highest priority, which is why KBB installers introduced robust safe working procedures over the last year.

“Recognising this by adding them to the list of workers exempt from automatic isolation would be an incredibly sensible thing for the Government to do.”