Pro Installer June 2014 - Issue 15 | Page 56

56 JUNE 2014 PRO INSTALLER PRO BUSINESS www.proinstaller.co.uk Fensa Marks One Year Of Continued Growth Notifications of replacement windows and doors in domestic properties in the first quarter of 2014 are up 8.4%* on the same period last year, says FENSA. This represents the best January, February and March since 2011. January installations were up 11.3%, February up 6.6% and March up 7.6%. “We have now seen four consecutive quarters o f growth,” comments FENSA Managing Director, Chris Mayne. “The same period last year saw a disappointing 5.4% decrease in notifications compared to quarter one in 2012. The industry appears to be in a much better position now.” According to DCLG, 89% of all window installations are covered by FENSA. * Calculated from the most up to date window and door installation figures notified to FENSA in January, February and March 2014 HOMEOWNERS HAVE DIFFICULTY IN FINDING ‘TRUSTWORTHY’ TRADESPEOPLE A survey has found that homeowners are not doing maintenance and repair work because they cannot find builders and other tradespeople whom they can trust. The findings are according to the 2014 Homeowner Survey from the HomeOwners’ Alliance and TrustMark, the government endorsed ‘find a tradesman’ scheme. It showed that finding a trusted builder is such a major problem across regions of the UK that it means that the nation’s housing stock could be ending up in a state of disrepair. More than half of homeowners (58%) said they had difficulty finding a ‘trusted’ builder to assist with home repairs or improvements. These difficulties were having a big impact on the work that homeowners decided to do, and how they did it. Among the homeowners who have difficulty finding trusted builders, 12% did not do the work at all, while a quarter (26%) delayed the project. Alternatively, affected homeowners did their own repairs/ DIY (40%), did essential works only (27%), or used tradesmen they were uncertain about (28%). Key findings from the 2014 Homeowner Survey, conducted by YouGov, included: 58% of UK homeowners say they find it difficult to find a tradesman they trust to help with either home repairs or improvements, with one in five (21%) saying that it is “very difficult”. Women are more likely than men to find it ‘very difficult’ to find a tradesman they trust to help with either home repairs or improvements. 24% of female homeowners as against 17% of male homeowners say they find it very difficult to find a tradesman they trust. Regionally, the difficulties of finding a reliable builder or tradesman is greatest in London (67%), the East (66%) and the Midlands (64%), compared with the national average of 58%, saying they have difficulty finding a reliable builder or tradesman to assist with home repairs and improvements. Liz Male, Chair, TrustMark – public are handing over of £1.9 billion a year and “paying to fix botched jobs by tradesmen who were just not qualified to do the work”. Liz Male, Chair, TrustMark, said of the findings: “A nation of homeowners is at the mercy of leaflets through the door or findanyoldbuilder.com websites because they don’t have a network of local tradespeople they can turn to. The price we pay are homes lacking proper care and attention, an ever deteriorating housing stock and the financial burden of £1.9 billion a year paying to fix botched jobs by tradesmen who were just not qualified to do the work.” ‘89% of all window installations are covered by FENSA’ GGF Training Website Updated GGF Training has recently updated its website www.ggftraining.com with the FENSA Homepage on the site now linking customers to the FENSA registration page on www. fensa.org.uk and subsequently re-directing customers to the Minimal Technical Competency (MTC) registration page. Once registered, customers will then be able to use GGF Training to become fully compliant. With this development of the GGF Training website, customers will now be able to: • Register and pay for their required re-sits • Register onto a newly launched Continued Professional Development (CPD) route of MTC compliance which is available to any Installer or Surveyor who has achieved a Fenestration NVQ over 5 years ago. For more information on this route please visit: http://www. ggftraining.com/mtc/ ‘much easier’ routes-to-compliance Jon Vanstone, GGF Training Managing Director commented “This online development will make MTC training and compliance much easier for customers. With the 6th June deadline fast approaching, I’d urge every company to act fast and ensure they are operating legally by becoming MTC compliant.” For more information on GGF Training and MTC please visit http:// ggftraining.com/mtc Pick up the PRO Installer, FREE, from one of over 300 trade counters.