Scots builders to be licensed

Scottish building contractors and building specialists have reached agreement on a voluntary registration or licensing scheme in a bid to stamp out industry cowboys. They are aiming to launch the scheme at the beginning of October.

Sid Patten, chief executive of Scottish Building, said the building employer body had held discussions with a wide range of Scottish interests over recent months.

They included plumbers, electrical contractors, painting and decorating firms, and other specialists, as well as the Northern Ireland construction employers.

"We are all of a mind that we want to set up a new, independent regulatory authority for the construction industry in Scotland," he said. "It will be a registration body - in effect a licensing authority.

"We are provisionally calling it the Scottish Construction Licensing Authority, and we are looking to launch on 1 October."

Patten said the licensing body would be composed of representatives from the main participating employer organisations.

It would also include representatives of the Scottish Consumer Council, the Scottish TUC, the Office of Fair Trading, Trading Standards, insurers, mortgage lenders and individual consumers.

He continued: "There will be strict criteria for registration such as financial integrity, operative competence, insurance, warranty schemes, health and safety compliance and investment in training.

"Initially, registration will be on a voluntary basis. But we are more than hopeful of backing from the Scottish Executive both in terms of general support and building the scheme into the building control regulations.

"There will be no direct cost to registering firms in the first instance, with the sponsoring bodies bearing the start-up costs."

Long-term administrative cost arrangements have yet to be decided. "But we are at pains to ensure that costs to firms will be minimal. We don't want to widen the gap between the costs of the reputable builder and those of the cowboy."

Patten added: "We had been hoping for legislation to support the scheme in the short-term. We now believe that, in the longer term, some form of light-handed legislation is the way forward."

The licensing initiative has come in response to considerable scepticism among Scottish builders regarding the likely effectiveness of the government-backed Quality Mark scheme.