Amey’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic

Covid-19 has created an international crisis and these are unprecedented, fast-changing times through which we are all having to quickly adapt.

My goal as CEO is simple, responding to our country’s needs by ensuring critical services are maintained to keep the UK running, whilst protecting our employees, the communities we serve and supporting our suppliers. 

Covid-19 has emphasised how vital our work is. From waste collection, cleaning schools, maintaining the roads and keeping transport links open, we’re seeing how crucial Amey is to keeping Britain going in a time of national crisis. We’re helping millions of people to stay at home, preventing the spread of coronavirus – but we’re also supporting the NHS’s frontline staff in getting to work, and delivering urgently needed care. This makes me immensely proud of Amey, our people and the work we do.

Amey is also proving itself to be resilient and known for doing the right thing, and even if we don’t get it right first time we are listening and adapting. Like all organisations, the business has needed to work together to find new ways of working and we have risen to the challenge. I am heartened to hear stories every single day in how Amey employees are going above and beyond. I know this is echoed not only by our clients but also by the public – I’ve been seeing thank you posters placed in windows on social media, as well as hearing about local collections and funds to reward our bin crews, and I have received a number of letters of gratitude for the work we are delivering across the country. 

Over 9,900 of our employees have been classed as key workers.  This makes looking after our people more important than ever, which is why I am resolutely committed to the safety of our employees and the communities we serve. We are working closely with our clients and mobilising all resource required to protect our employees and prioritise work that supports the government in limiting the spread of Covid-19. We are the backbone of Britain, and it is now in a crisis that people are realising just how important the work is that our people deliver.

A glimpse of the work we’re doing

The services Amey delivers not only helps to keep the country running smoothly, but also supports millions of key workers across the UK. Across our network we are trying to maintain many business as usual practices and fulfil our contracts. Here is just a snapshot of what we are working to deliver right now:

• In collaboration with more than 20 local authorities, Amey’s waste collection teams are working hard to keep services running for over 615,000 homes every day.
• In defence, Amey is responsible for maintaining 50,000 service family homes and 23,000 Ministry of Defence (MOD) buildings and assets, from Edinburgh Castle to the Ministry of Defence. This work on behalf of the Defence Infrastructure Organisaton for the MoD is essential to keeping the UK’s Armed Forces operational during the pandemic.
• We are maintaining our justice system including 18 court rooms and 60 prisons through Covid-19, as well as supporting the safe transfer of prisoners as needed.
• We provide facilities management to NHS Birmingham & Solihull Mental Health Trust across 21 sites, which serve a population of 1.3 million.
• We are supporting schools across the country to stay open for the children of critical workers.
• Amey maintains 30,000km of roads and highways nationally, as well as our local authority roads. These roads, as well as our rail networks, not only supports the safe traveling of key workers but will ensure full mobility for the country when it returns to normality. 
• We’re keeping waste treatment sites fully operational at a time of higher waste generation – Milton Keynes, Isle of Wight, North Yorkshire and Cambridgeshire are all working at full capacity, with significant additional tonnages of waste being collected by local authorities and contractors across the country.
• We have over 1,000 key workers delivering services across our utilities services maintaining essential services as this critical time.

Ultimately, we are responding to our clients as their demands are changing. No one knows how the rest of this crisis will unfold, but we can leverage the unique capabilities of our company and the services we deliver to collaborate with the community and Government to keep our nation running, whilst at the same time helping to support our National Health Service.

I remain focused on protecting our employees and the communities we serve during this time, and I am proud of the way Amey has risen to the occasion and the work we are doing across Britain at a time of national crisis.