The unprecedented level of support for construction was revealed in new HM Revenue and Customs figures to the end of July.

Around £2.93bn has now been paid out to 174,000 firms making claims for staff on furlough.

Over 769,000 staff have received support, with three-quarters of the industry’s eligible firms signing up to the coronavirus job retention scheme at some point in the last six months.

From now on the number of staff on furlough is expected to diminish sharply as contractors bring staff back into work or opt for redundancies to slim down for predicted lower levels of activity.

Since August employers have been asked to pay National Insurance and pensions contributions of furloughed staff and from September the amount of Government support to furloughed staff drops from 80% to 70% of salary.

New July figures from the self-employment income support scheme reveal 884,000 construction workers received pay-outs, representing an 83% take-up rate.

Pay-outs to the self-employed total just over £3.12bn, with the average claim at £3,500 being the highest for any UK sector.

Construction has taken the lion’s share of self-employed claims, throwing the spotlight once again on the size of the industry’s CIS workforce.

Construction accounted for a third of all payouts to the self-employed, far ahead of the single-digit percentage taken by other sectors of the UK.