§ Mrs. Ann Wintertonasked the Secretary of State for the Environment how many complaints have been brought to the attention of his Department in each of the last three years for which figures are available concerning dissatisfaction with work undertaken by building firms.
§ Sir George YoungAlthough we receive such complaints from time to time, my Department does not keep a detailed record of these, since in practice the large majority are made locally to the Citizens' Advice Bureaux or the trading standards department of local authorities. The number of consumer complaints notified by these bodies to the Office of Fair Trading about construction, double glazing and house insulation work in the United Kingdom since 1981 is as follows:
186W
Year Numbers 1981 24,673 1982 28,727 1983 36,316 *1984 23,015 * First six months only. The Government are well aware of the public concern about the quality of building work. It welcomes the initiative now being taken by the construction industry to tackle this problem. The Federation of Master Builders has operated a national register of warranted builders for several years and the Building Employers Confederation has just launched its own guarantee scheme. As these schemes are taken up by consumers they will make an important contribution towards alleviating this problem.