Regional housebuilder Bewley is to roll out technology which ‘buzzes’ workers that stand too close

Regional housebuilder Bewley Homes is to make its site workers wear wristbands that “buzz” when they are closer than two metres from each other.

Bewley wristbands on site

The technology is designed to help enforce social distancing on £140m turnover South-eastern housebuilder Bewley Homes’ construction sites as it reopens site work following the lockdown.

The housebuilder said it had successfully tested the technology, provided by construction communications business UK Connect, and will now roll out the wristbands to all its workers across all its sites in June.

The wristbands contain in-built sensors which can recognise each other and are programmed to generate a low vibration should one wristband come within two metres of one another.

Bewley said the technology, which doesn’t otherwise track and trace workers’ movements, was part of suite of measures allowing it to safely reopen sites this month.

Bewley Andrew Brooks on a Bewley Homes site

Andrew Brooks, managing director of Bewley Homes (pictured, right), said the wristbands were a way of enforcing social distancing and giving confidence to workers to return to a Bewley site. He said: “Unless the message is continually reinforced, human nature takes over and people will gravitate back to how they have always behaved. So, we are introducing these wrist bands to help keep social distancing protocols.