Prime Minister Andy Burnham has declared a strong stance against "cowboy builders," vowing to put unscrupulous tradespeople out of business. In an opinion piece published in the Daily Mail, Burnham described these individuals as "crooks" who "destroy lives" and target vulnerable individuals, citing a case where a homeowner was driven to attempt suicide due to unsafe living conditions left by a fraudulent tradesman.
Burnham highlighted statistics indicating that homeowners have lost approximately £14.3 billion over five years to substandard or fraudulent building work. "They prey on the vulnerable, they rob our neighbours of their futures and, above all else, they destroy lives," he stated. "They're crooks – and it's about time we treated them like it. So, today, we're putting the cowboys out of business."
Ahead of Parliament's return, the government announced its endorsement of two new schemes designed to protect homeowners. The first, a smartphone application named Trusted Partners, is set to launch next week. This app is designed to safeguard homeowners' funds by only releasing payments to builders upon the completion of key project milestones. The Department for Business and Trade anticipates that as many as 100,000 traders across Britain will be able to utilize the app by the end of September. Trusted Partners was developed by a private firm in collaboration with TrustMark, a quality assurance scheme endorsed by the government.
The second initiative, the Approved Codes Scheme for the home improvement sector, has been developed by the Chartered Trading Standards Institute and the Furniture and Home Improvement Ombudsman. Businesses that opt into this scheme will be required to demonstrate adherence to higher customer service standards. This program is scheduled to launch at the end of September and become fully operational by December. While the government is endorsing both schemes, it has not provided direct funding for them.