Richard Tice has launched a scathing attack on Andy Burnham’s latest plan to crack down on Britain’s cowboy builders.
Speaking to GB News, the Deputy Leader of Reform UK hit out at the Prime Minister’s policy, declaring it “yet another scheme”.
Mr Burnham has launched a crackdown on “cowboy builders” ripping off Britons with shoddy work and disappearing before jobs are finished.
The PM has vowed to put rogue traders “out of business” as ministers introduce new protections for households undertaking home improvements.
Criticising the policy, Mr Tice told GB News: “So what the Government should be doing, is not adding yet another scheme, another layer of bureaucracy, another layer of regulation which adds to the cost.”
He described the plans as typical of well-meaning government initiatives that ultimately fall down in their execution.
Instead of creating new frameworks, Mr Tice argued that the government ought to be raising awareness of established industry and local authority programmes that already function well.
He pointed to the Federation of Master Builders, Checkatrade, TrustMark, and Buy With Confidence as proven options that consumers could rely upon.
Richard Tice has hit out at Andy Burnham’s crackdown on cowboy builders
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GB NEWS / PA
“What it should be doing is boosting and advertising the existing scheme schemes that work well,” he said, adding that this approach represented “a better, simpler, lower cost, less bureaucratic way of dealing with it.”
Mr Tice noted that the latter two programmes were already backed by Government or local authorities, making the case for new regulation even weaker.
While acknowledging that the overwhelming majority of building work meets customer expectations, he maintained that rogue operators remain a genuine source of frustration.
He said: “Of course, regrettably, there is the odd cowboy rogue builder. But I repeat the point.
Andy Burnham has vowed to put ‘the cowboys out of business’
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GETTY
“There is a better, simpler, lower cost, less bureaucratic way of dealing with it, which is promote the existing local authority and government and industry schemes such as the Federation of Master Builders.”
He drew on his personal experience in the sector to underpin his stance, telling viewers: “That’s the right way to go. I know because I’m a builder. I’m a construction guy.”
Mr Tice expanded his criticism beyond the building trade, taking aim at the broader political culture in Westminster. He declared: “The country is broken, our social housing system is broken. Everybody knows it.”
Dismissing what he called the negativity of the “Westminster Village,” he insisted Reform UK takes a more pragmatic approach. “We’re businesslike. We get stuff done,” he said.
Mr Tice told GB News that there is a ‘better, simpler, lower cost way’ to tackle them
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GB NEWS
He urged a willingness to attempt meaningful change, warning that without it, progress would remain elusive. Returning to the issue of rogue tradespeople, he acknowledged that many viewers would know somebody who had been left out of pocket by a dishonest builder.
In a statement, the Prime Minister said: “Cowboy builders don’t just rip people off. They leave families with months of stress, the disruption of unfinished work, and that horrible feeling of being taken advantage of.
“Not only that, but they give the vast majority of decent, hardworking tradespeople a bad name.
“So we’re putting the cowboys out of business. These changes mean you’ll now have the option to make sure your money is held safely and released bit by bit as the work gets done.”