The Enquirer has been contacted by contractors struggling to find accommodation for their workers.

Hotels have been closed since the lockdown started last month to everyone apart from key workers.

The key worker list currently includes only construction workers involved in infrastructure repair work.

One contracting boss said: “Finding somewhere for travelling workers to stay at the moment is a total nightmare.

“The government is encouraging us to keep working on site but you need a bit of joined up thinking.

“There are thousands of hotels and B&Bs desperate for the business and we as an industry need the rooms.”

Another specialist added: “We as a company are encountering massive problems being able to source accommodation to be able to return to work.

“We have in-house installation teams as well as subcontract teams and at least 95% of our work sees us having to find accommodation from Monday to Friday because most of our work is in the south and we are based in Barnsley.

“We are now encountering immense pressure from major contractors to return to site but we are finding this impossible without adequate accommodation.

“We either need key worker status to be able to use the handful of hotels that are open or for the government to ease the lockdown and reopen the hotels.”