Cowboy builders to be up against tougher self

Cowboy builders to be up against tougher self New measures designed to protect the public from incompetent "cowboy" builders were announced by the government on Wednesday and given a cautious welcome by MPs. About 85,000 complaints are made about building work in homes each year according to the Office of Fair Trading. "I'm determined to make sure that consumers are properly protected. 5m to 3m jobs are self-certified under competent person schemes each year, compared with an estimate of 50% a million other notifiable jobs supervised by building control bodies. "Cowboys builders that leave behind a trail of shoddy work costing householders thousands to put right, give the rest of the industry a bad name. The measures will enforce compulsory financial protection for householders, following a number of cases where self-check installers failed to finish work properly or were tracked down through the courts. The new conditions of authorisation for competent person scheme operators have been published with an impact assessment and the summary of responses to consultation. Installers of boilers who wish to self-certify must pay a membership fee to join a scheme and demonstrate that they have the necessary skills and technical competence to undertake a certain sort of work. They'll instead conduct unannounced spot-checks, to make the scheme more rigorous. "On the face of it, these plans seem like an extension of the schemes that are already in place in many areas on a local level and appear to be a good idea. Andrew Gwynne, the Labour MP for Denton and Reddish who has campaigned for greater protection for consumers from cowboy builders, welcomed the move but would want to see the details of the scheme and how it will be funded. Installers undertaking certain types of work subject to the construction regulations may choose to join a relevant scheme if they consider membership to be beneficial. There are 18 competent person schemes that allow builders and workmen to regulate their own work. To become a competent person scheme operator, applicants are supposed to show they have the managerial, financial and technical ability to operate a self-certification scheme, according to the ministry. The communities minister, Andrew Stunell, said the measures are a significant step in combating bad workmanship. I look forward to reading the proposals in detail," he said. The new conditions were introduced after a public consultation in 2009/10 and further extensive consultation, through meetings and correspondence, with existing scheme operators and the United Kingdom Accreditation Service. Cowboy builders to be up against tougher self Trade News selected by Local Linkup on 07/06/2012