The move follows attempts to get its trade contractors to cut rates on jobs by 5% as the house builder tries to cut costs.

Management’s redundancy plans would see nearly 6% of the firm’s 3,000 staff laid off.

Bellway said it was having to match its overheads with new lower rates of production because of social distancing restraints.

A spokesman said: “Bellway is putting a small number of roles at risk of redundancy due to the impact of Covid-19 and the subsequent reduction in production it has caused.

“Back in March, Covid-19 forced the closure of our construction sites, sales centres and divisional offices back while we introduced new working practices.

“The new safer way of working on site along with the introduction of social distancing measures has slowed the build process and subsequently had a negative impact on the amount of units we are able to complete.

“This, alongside the current economic uncertainty that COVID-19 has brought has meant we have reviewed our business model to ensure we remain fit for the future.

“As a result, we are having to ensure that our business overheads, including the size of the workforce, reflects this reduction in production.”