Despite the setback, Brian Berry, chief executive officer, Federation of Master Builders was encouraged by the government’s commitment to work with stakeholders and the industry to address the issue. Berry brought Clive Holland up to speed on the importance of builder licenses

Clive Holland: What issues is the FMB looking to tackle with regards to the builders’ license?

Brian Berry: We are calling for the licensing of construction companies – so not individual builders – because we were really concerned that really good building companies are damaged by the poor reputation of cowboy builders.

We know that a lot of homeowners are put off having work done because they are worried about having incompetent builders doing the work. 32% of homeowners delay having work done because they are worried about who to go too.

We are advocating a licensing scheme for building companies that gives consumers the reassurance they need about having good builders in their homes to do the work and also to tidy up the image of the building industry.

77% of our members said they would support licensing – so there is really good support within the industry.

Holland: How do you see the construction license working?

Berry: There would need to be a central registration body, companies would pay a small fee to make sure that all the paperwork is in order, but it give[s] protection to consumers that if the building work goes wrong, they have somewhere to go to and it would push out cowboy builders working in the market.

Holland: What will builders be required to show to gain the license? How will this work? Can the consumer leave the builder on the doorstep and go check a web page?

Berry: Exactly, the same sort of thing. Each building company would be able to demonstrate very clearly that they are registered to the licensing body [and] the consumers could check the website to make sure it all ties up.

It is about providing assurance to the homeowner that the company is bona-fide. And not only that the company is registered, but if things go wrong, the consumer knows who to go to if there is a problem.

Fortunately, most building companies do a fantastic job, so nobody has anything to worry about apart from the cowboy builders because they won’t meet the criteria to be licensed.

Holland: Do you see the license scheme being organised by a new trade body, or by some combination of existing regulatory organisations?

Berry: We could be looking at something that already exists in the form of Trust Mark, a government endorsed standards body that could be adapted in some way.

The details of this need to be worked out – at the moment we are just talking about the principle of having a licensing authority, but it would need to work within the existing structure of the building industry because that keeps the cost down and tries to simplify it.

What we don’t want to do is it make this over-complicated and expensive. We need to keep this as simple as we can and keep the costs down.
 

Holland: Potentially it is as great idea. What’s not to love about it, because anybody who is genuine will welcome it will open arms. Those that aren’t – won’t. it is as simple as that.

Berry: Exactly. All good builders are going to welcome this. It really improves the image of the building industry, which is something we need to do because we need to get more people into the building industry.