The anniversary of Boris Johnson’s first televised “lockdown” address to the nation and the life-changing weeks that followed a year ago – along with everything that has befallen the world since – have given almost all of us reason to stop and reflect on what we did then, and why. Taylor Wimpey chief executive Pete Redfern is no exception.

In the face of unclear government advice, his business became – the morning after that address on 23 March – the first national housebuilder to announce that it was shutting sites, a decision copied by nearly all of its rivals within a matter of days. A series of initiatives that followed during April 2020 – on executive pay, supply chain payments, making public safe working protocols – meant that he was seen as the de facto industry leader in terms of responding to this national crisis.