Partner Article

Has there been an effective clampdown on cowboy builders?

Beat the Cowboy Builder have been battling cowboy builders in the construction industry since 2009. They will soon appear on Channel 5’s popular Cowboy Builders programme. Here, Ronald Pye, managing director of the company, assesses the issue of cowboys in their profession.

Following the statement made by a government minister in June 2012 that a clampdown would be enforced to place controls on the problems caused by Cowboy Builders our company searches cannot find any tangible evidence to support the fact that anything has been done or any definitive legislation passed to combat this problem.

We as a company, Beat the Cowboy Builder, fight this problem every day of the week and we closely watch and monitor all legislation regarding changes to the building industry in all sections of the industry.

To date we have seen nothing.

Beat the Cowboy Builder contacted Andrew Strunell and Vince Cable last year to enquire what they had planned to tackle this issue and as of yet, we have had no reply.

The answer that will be forthcoming to my last statement will be it is undergoing appraisal at this time.

This or any other government has to rely on expert guidance from professionals who are involved in this problem.

One has to query, is the advice given as professional as it could be?

I believe in the present era of cut back after cut back the idea of having the suggested self-check scheme enforced within the construction industry has been shelved due to the cost implications of a scheme of this ilk.

I stated in my previous report on this issue the government would not have the money to operate this scheme. It would seem, 2 years on, I was right.

Self-check sounds awfully suspicious to me. Just how does this scheme operate? Does it mean one requests an inspection by a professional/qualified inspector? Or does one submit paperwork to state that you as the builder have checked the work and find it fit for purpose?

I think this point requires absolute clarification on how it will work. (I already know but I would like to see a written statement on this point, something nobody has been prepared to do to date.)

To date I still cannot find the 18 parties who would be responsible for operating the suggested scheme of self-checks using any of the above suggested methods.

Who are they, where are they? Once again I reiterate, how is this going to operate financially? Who is going to foot the bill for these inspections?

Once again let’s look at the figures. With 2 to 3 million predicted projects carried out every year, we have 252 actual working days in the UK, which equates to 7,936 projects per day to be inspected on the given figure of 2 million projects throughout the UK.

Where is the experienced professional manpower coming from to carry out this enormous task? You have to think about it, the inspectors will have to be paid, they will have expenses and require a car and petrol to get from job to job. Office staff will be required to file and monitor the findings of these inspectors.

In my professional experience and opinion, it is just not feasible; it’s a smoke screen to cover a problem that government does not have the answer too.

Beat the Cowboy Builder’s team have spent three years trawling for every bit of construction legislation we could find, from all sources made available to us. We have compiled all the mandatory regulations that are available, adequate and enforceable enough to control this problem. Forget building licences and all the other poppycock that is suggested, we can and do it and do it with one piece of paper.

Beat the Cowboy Builder have the answer. Yes, we do have a legally enforceable answer, but, as of yet, no official body wants to assist us in our quest to control this problem.

The system, we operate at this time, right now, today, totally prevents any Cowboy from operating.

In addition to this problem, which raises its ugly head following every recession, is the fact that we have lost hundreds of qualified tradesmen who will not return to our industry. This is a proven fact that happens each and every recession. These trades have mouths to feed and mortgages to pay. They are not going to give their new job up to come back to what can only be an uncertain future.

So how do we replace them? We don’t have enough young people trained to fill their professional boots, leading to a skill shortage within specialised trades. This is when the Cowboys do it for us; they come out to play in their droves wreaking havoc.

I can assure everybody, and I have seen this eight recessions over my years in the construction industry, this is a definite, there is nothing more certain, our industry will go back to square one, believe me.

This is the cancer of our industry, it will never go away, but it can be and must be controlled.

Beat the Cowboy Builder have the tools to do this.

We have independently helped hundreds of people since 2012 and we will continue to do so to eradicate this problem our industry faces.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ron Pye - Beat the Cowboy Builder .