Anti-cowboy group fights back

by Graham Ridout



Tony Merricks, the leader of the anti-cowboy builder working group, has hit out at reports that the Government-backed quality mark scheme for registering competent contractors is faltering. Merricks countered the reports: "Some people don't want the scheme to succeed."

A pilot programme for the scheme is being run in Birmingham and is now in its eleventh week. In that time, Merricks said that 393 companies had applied for registration packs and, of those, 281 had requested support to get their company in shape for registering with the scheme.

He said the companies requesting support had asked for help on a variety of issues such as training, health and safety statements and customer complaints procedures. He explained: "It is taking time simply because some of them don't know what a customer complaints procedure is. It is an act of faith by the builders because we haven't opened up the scheme to the public."

When the Birmingham pilot was launched, a Department of the Environment Transport and the Regions' official said that a critical mass of around 100 firms was needed before inviting the public to use the scheme. However Merricks stressed: "We are not looking for numbers. There was no major publicity for the scheme until week seven. We made it perfectly clear that we wouldn't open it up to the public until we get a critical mass."

He said the scheme relied on having the widest possible range of trade skills. "If we had a 100 firms and they were all plumbers, we couldn't open it up. Our concern is to get the scheme right - whatever time it takes."

Merricks also hit out at criticisms that the assessment process for builders was not sufficiently rigorous. "The working group decided what was fair and reasonable by talking to the industry. We are not going to fudge standards set by the industry."

He said that many of the firms that the scheme is trying to attract are small firms or even sole traders and that the assessment process had to recognise that.

He rounded on critics who said that the scheme would not work unless VAT was reduced. A reduction in VAT was one of the principal recommendations made in Merricks' report and it was hoped that the Chancellor would reduce the rate in the last Budget. "I am disappointed that a reduction in VAT is not there." But he stressed that this should not adversely affect the scheme.