This lack of interest almost certainly means that the trial will not get off the ground next month as planned. The pilot, which was launched by construction minister Nick Raynsford in April, had already been delayed two months because of problems with the assessment criteria.
The reason for the poor response is thought to be the six-part form that firms have to fill in. After phoning the hotline, firms receive an information pack and application form that is assessed by the BRE.
Rudi Klein, chief executive of the Specialist Engineering Contractors Group, said some members were concerned about the “overly bureaucratic application forms”.
He said: “The whole thing is a bit half-baked, it’s impractical for small firms. The forms require information about management systems and procurement systems that are completely irrelevant to the average one-man band or small builder.
“The amount of time a small builder will have to waste providing proof that he is a competent builder laid out in the application packs is prohibitive. At £500 [the registration fee], a good builder might feel he’s better off joining the cowboys.”
Government cowboy tsar Stephen Walker played down the lack of response to the pilot. He said: “We weren’t expecting thousands to register. It’s going as we expected.”
The whole thing is a bit half-baked, it’s impractical for the average one-man band
Rudi Klein
He added: “Builders need time to fill in the forms; it’s not the sort of thing you can fill in in half a day. It could take a week to fill in the application correctly.
“We want a steady build-up. We can still launch in June, it will depend on the up-take of the industry.”
However, insiders said the scheme would not be ready next month. “The BRE hasn’t assessed one builder yet. How do they think they can go to consumers in June?”
Tony Merricks, who led the government working group that proposed the quality mark, said he was scheduled to receive an update from the DETR this week. Merricks said: “One hundred applications isn’t bad. But whether we get all the applications back and processed before June is a moot point. Maybe we are asking for too much information at once. But that is the point of the pilot, to iron out problems.”
A spokesperson for the DETR said: “We only started advertising the scheme to builders this week.” He said it was unclear whether or not the pilot scheme would meet its deadline.
On the question of the information builders were required to supply, the spokesperson said: “Clearly, if you set up a register of this sort you need a fair amount of information.”
