The Home Buying and Selling Group has written an open letter to the chancellor calling for greater flexibility to move staff into and out of the furlough scheme in order to manage peaks and troughs in market activity.
The group, made up of estate agents, conveyancers, valuers, surveyors, energy assessors, search companies and removers, says there are likely to be spikes in activity as the pent-up demand from those who have put off completing on sales and moving home work through the system.
The professionals predict there will be a jump in activity in the immediate future as property listings increase, viewings resume and those who have put their home buying plans on hold return to the market.
This is expected to be followed by a later peak as cases progress to exchange, completion and finally to those involved in the transaction moving home.
Once this passes there may be a lull in activity as the pipeline rebuilds.
The HBSG says that the current job retention scheme does not give firms enough flexibility to manage these fluctuations in business volumes and argues that employers should be able to move staff in and out of furlough on a weekly basis instead of three weekly.
Without this flexibility it warns that there will be bottle necks and backlogs in the housing market.
The group also argues that under current arrangements employers may be reluctant to take the financial risk of moving staff out of furlough and will err on the side of caution by doing so for minimal numbers of employees.
The HBSG says that the property industry is particularly affected by these issues as most players involved in the home buying and selling market are not paid until the very end of the process.
The letter says: “Allowing employers to move people into and out of furlough on a weekly basis would allow them to deal with the expected spikes in activity without risking unmanageable staffing costs once the spike has passed.
“It would help to smooth the re-activation of the property market, save jobs, promote the long term future of viable businesses, and ultimately save the Treasury money in unemployment costs.
“This increased flexibility would also likely result in short-term savings for the Treasury, as risk averse employers will feel more comfortable taking staff off the job retention scheme with the benefit of this increased flexibility.
“According to early figures from the estate agency, removals, and conveyancing sectors, less than 50 per cent of employees have been brought out of furlough following the lifting of restrictions on the operation of the housing market.
“Increased flexibility in the job retention scheme could, we believe, lead to an additional 10 to 15 per cent of furloughed employees being returned to work.
“At such figures, the cost savings to the Treasury of one week’s less furlough payments at the lower estimate of 10 per cent is in excess of £18.5 million.”
