We have seen up close what poor building work does to people: the hidden costs, the lost money, the trust that doesn't come back. And too often it traces to the same thing, that someone was allowed to trade as a builder who had no business doing so.
The scale of it is now on record, and it is worse than most people would guess.
A major renovation under full scaffolding. Getting it right starts with choosing qualified, accountable people. RISE Design Studio.
The Federation of Master Builders estimates that rogue and unqualified builders have cost UK homeowners around £14.3 billion over the past five years. The figure comes from its research for the Licence to Build campaign, and it isn't abstract: it is built from the roughly 15% of adults who reported losing money to a rogue builder, an average of about £1,760 each. More than a third of people, 37%, say they have hired a builder who turned out to be unreliable or unqualified.
Behind each of those numbers is a household dealing with the aftermath: an unfinished loft, a damp extension, a job abandoned halfway. It is a lot of money and a lot of disrupted lives, and most of it was avoidable.
Here is the part that surprises people. In the UK there is no mandatory licensing scheme for builders. Anyone can set up and start work on your home without proving any competence, training or accountability, which is not the case for gas engineers or electricians. Nearly half the public assume some form of licensing already exists. It doesn't.
That gap leaves homeowners exposed and undercuts good builders, who end up competing on price against people cutting corners. It also quietly works against sustainability, because every job that has to be ripped out and redone wastes the materials, energy and money that went into it the first time. Bad building is, by definition, wasteful building.
The financial figures are only part of it. In the FMB's evidence, one homeowner described being taken advantage of just after losing their mother to cancer. Grieving and vulnerable, they trusted a builder to construct an extension. The project was abandoned, building inspectors were ignored, and they were left with an uninhabitable home, serious debt, and a severe toll on their mental health. What was meant to be a space to grieve and heal became the opposite. Stories like that recur through the FMB's casework, and they are entirely preventable.
Licensing isn't red tape for its own sake. A mandatory scheme would do a few straightforward things: keep unqualified operators out, give reputable builders a way to prove they are legitimate before they cross your threshold, and shift the competition onto quality rather than who can quote the lowest and cut the most. It would also reduce waste and support more durable, lower-carbon building. Public support is strong, at around 81%, and the campaign has now been debated in Parliament more than once, so there is at least some momentum behind it.
While there is no licensing scheme, the job of checking sits with the homeowner, which isn't fair but is the reality. Until that changes, the practical protections are the ordinary ones. Use an architect to specify the work and administer the contract. Choose builders who belong to a recognised body such as the FMB. Ask for references and actually follow them up. Keep an independent eye on quality through the build. And never let the cheapest quote make the decision on its own. Good building costs what it costs, and the expensive version is the one that has to be done twice.
At RISE, our teams are qualified, our process is transparent, and we stay involved through construction so the work matches what was drawn and specified. If you are planning a retrofit, an extension or a new build and want to get it right the first time, we'd be glad to talk it through.
→ Email us at architects@risedesignstudio.co.uk
→ Or call the studio on 020 3947 5886
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