A report by Sky News has outlined that only 43 cowboy builders were prosecuted last year, despite “tens of thousands” of complaints made.
The report, which highlighted the distress caused to the people that are ripped off, includes the shocking story of a disabled man – former electrician Steve Higgs – who has “been living in an outhouse since his builder demolished and failed to rebuild his entire home”.
The investigation included looking at the number of complaints made to Trading Standards about rogue tradespeople as well as the amount of criminal prosecutions carried out by each local authority. It found that there were huge geographical variations, depending on how “well resourced” that particular area is in terms of Trading Standards staff.
The report says “a third of councils made no criminal prosecutions in a whole year”, and that’s with almost 40,000 complaints being made, which included 17,795 complaints involving suspected building scams or rogue traders.
Sky News found that the worst hit areas were Staffordshire and Devon, which both had over 800 complaints to Trading Standards in a year, but when taking population size into account, the worst area was Stoke-on-Trent.
The map shows the areas with the most – and fewest – prosecutions (and almost one in five councils didn’t provide any figures to Sky News’ Freedom of Information request at all).
Number of cowboy builder prosecutions per Trading Standards Authority area – the dark blue indicates over 5
©️ Sky NewsThe report has renewed calls for a mandatory licensing scheme for builders, with Mark Garnier MP telling Sky News that a scheme would give homeowners reassurance that the builder they choose will deliver the work as agreed. He said: “There is no mechanism to make sure that builders actually do the work properly, aside from going to a court.”
Today on LinkedIn, Bill Esterson MP posted about his backing for the Federation of Master Builders ‘Licence To Build’ campaign. He said: “Every year I hear from constituents dealing with the consequences of building work gone wrong – while many honest tradespeople are let down and undercut by a dishonest few.
“A Licence to Build would mean firms must meet clear standards on safety, skills, quality, and customer care before taking on work.”
Read the full report here: news.sky.com/story/wrecked-homes-and-huge-debts-why-cowboy-builders-are-getting-away-with-it-13537147
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Lucy Dixon (author)
Lucy leads on InstallerBUILD content, as well as engagement for InstallerSHOW. She has a background in journalism and a wealth of experience in events, publishing and social media.
