Looking to improve your home can be a daunting business, especially when you have to find a reliable builder you can trust. This is why a new report that reveals that home owners in the UK are frightened of being ripped off by cowboy builders, or that the job won’t be good enough, is worrying news.
With people saying that they would spend more money on their property if they could trust builders, it is obvious that minds have to be changed and cowboy builders have to be pushed out of the industry. With around £40,000 being the average people would spend on major home improvements over the next five years, then worries have to be eased.
These revelations were revealed in a report by the Federation of Master Builders (FMB). The report also revealed that with 32% of owners deferring possible work because of the worry, that means the UK economy is missing out on a possible £10 billion of work per year.
If these worries could be handled, and there was more confidence in builders, then it is fair to say that there would be a lot of demand for work in the UK. Growth would be impressive and builders and their potential customers would be happy. The fact that cowboy builders are weakening the building sector is causing worry.
With the UK experiencing the worst growth in the economy since 2012, and GDP falling to 1.8% it is obvious that anything that could give a boost would be a very positive thing. This is a sign that the Government have to take action to help build confidence in builders. This means tougher action against builders that have been known to do shoddy work and better ways for customers to check out potential builders for the work they want to do.
When it comes to building work, the customers should have confidence that they can hire a builder and their work will be done and at an adequate level. If they are still worried that this will not be the case, then it is obvious that current actions to handle these builders is not enough, especially in the eyes of the customers.
What the UK could do is to look at countries like Australia and Canada where there are more restrictions on just who can be a builder. In the UK, anybody can be a builder at the moment, which opens up the potential of a small minority of rogue traders to give other builders a bad image, even if this is not the case. There needs to be a better quality of builder, with the rogue ones pushed out.
With this in mind the FMD are looking at the possibility of mandatory licensing of builders, which would be something enforced by the industry and Government. This will take time though and until then customers will have to go on the builder’s reputation and history as to whether they fit the needs of the building job they are paid to do.
With possible steps coming in the future to clean up the history, if cowboy builders can be pushed out hopefully that will provide more confidence for customers. Then, maybe the potential money being lost because of these builders could finally be put into the industry rather than held back out of worry.