We need more migrants

[lilelvis2000]

You know you're in the UK when it takes four guys to take a picture of a hole. One to watch for trains. One to open the cover. One to "supervise" and the one guy who actually takes the photo and notes. I bet in Poland this would only take one guy.

Get this, It has taken the best part of three months to add a short slip road onto a road in Bolton. Three months!! and its only about 60 metres long.

Why is when you pass roadworks there's only one or two guys actually working - when there is someone working that is.

Would I rather get my garage extension done by immigrants - yes. It would get done fast and with quality and would not cost a fortune.

[AtW]

Construction industry is a complete rip-off in the UK.

[Clippy]

Troll, you really are a one trick pony.

Change the record sunshine.

Your obsessed man.

[2uk]

You know you're in the UK when it takes four guys to take a picture of a hole. One to watch for trains. One to open the cover. One to "supervise" and the one guy who actually takes the photo and notes. I bet in Poland this would only take one guy.

Get this, It has taken the best part of three months to add a short slip road onto a road in Bolton. Three months!! and its only about 60 metres long.

Why is when you pass roadworks there's only one or two guys actually working - when there is someone working that is.

Would I rather get my garage extension done by immigrants - yes. It would get done fast and with quality and would not cost a fortune.

Can you raise your skirt ?

[Diver]

Construction industry is a complete rip-off in the UK.

The staff in the construction and demolition side of my business are all CSCS/CITB trained and take great pride in their work.
Unfortunately at a cost of £900 for each training board module it is expensive for them to gain the qualifications required in todays industry. Especially when foreign nationals without the required British qualifications (and the expense) are taking their jobs.
How many polish plumbers are working out their without Corgi, how many foreign electricians who are not NIC/EIC Registered/Qualified, who get employment over British tradesmen because of a loophole that allows companies to employ Foreign nationals/Immigrants to carry out work that would get them prosecuted if they employed an unqualified/unregistered Brit to do it for them.

[AtW]

The staff in the construction and demolition side of my business are all CSCS/CITB trained and take great pride in their work.

Maybe.

I look at guys who work on removing silt from that very small pond in local park, and I say they work very lightly and 6 months to do the job is a ridiculous amount of time.

I see a couple non-native British workers working on a house on my street and I see them every day working like heck - now that's good attitude and I am prepared to bet they are a lot cheaper.

Frankly, we are not talking here about nuclear science where qualification is essential, this is not engineering of the house, ffs, you don't need to be a genius to do these things and frankly they charge so much that they should do perfect job super fast.

[Diver]

A few results of quickly and cheaply done work by unqualified so called tradesmen...

A garage extension single story, cavity trays not installed correctly. two weeks to cut out and reinstall, make good the water damage to the internal walls £5.600

Wrong sized steel lintel installed over new entrance to three story building. three weeks and £17,000 to replace and repair the structural damage caused to the front elevation.

Internal concrete floors laid to replace existing timber floors. compacted hardcore not compacted. sand blinding not laid - result = hardcore/rubble penetrated DP Membrane causing damp to rise through the floor. we had to break out the new floor and re-lay £2,400

These jobs were carried out by building companies using cheap unqualified labor.

We got called in to repair or replace their shoddy work, I make money yes, but it annoys me when I have to chase work and cut my prices to compete with cowboys and foreigners.

Take the garage for example: I would have made more money if I had done the full build, I would have been giving employment to qualified tradesmen, and the house owner would not have had to fork out an extra £5,600 for unnecessary work. he would have paid £2,500 approx more for us to do the complete job and he would have had a guarantee from a Federation member with full insurance.

Think about that when you need work done.

By the way, contracted civils and building work is usually carried out as priced work not day rate. civils usually have a time/penalty clause, and it is the contractor that loses out if he goes over time. We quite often have to pay or rather lodge a considerable bond on large or critical contracts, we operate under a CDM and have an appointed project supervisor.

A few years ago we dredged a pond near Cardiff airport, Fonmon pond, it took us a few weeks, most of it standing around because we had to wait for the silt to settle out of suspension so that the waste company could take silt away not muddy water, it must have really annoyed people to see my men standing around chatting, but the waiting times were priced into the job.

[lilelvis2000]

For every good job by qualified people, I'm sure there is at least one bad (or slow) job by qualified people. The impression the public has is that the skilled trades (electrica, plumb, gas, construction) are slow, pricey and of poor quality. Watch rogue trader sometime - you'll sh*t your pants.

I must agree that greedy new home builders do make poor quality homes (in general) . They must have somehow priced in the repairs into their profit estimates. Presumably these are the ones hiring unqualified labour. Even a country like Canada has tests on foriegn qualified people to bring them up to spec. They can't work without a card certifing that they are qualified. I find it hard to believe that the UK does not have same? So if you know a company is hiring illegally - have you informed the authorities?

[AtW]

A few results of quickly and cheaply done work by unqualified so called tradesmen...

Feedback from home owners seem to suggest that immigrants do the job pretty well and cheap too. Let's not forget here that these basic construction things (we are not talking about design of tunnel under the English Channel) are not exactly rocket science, even Jesus was allegedly a carpenter, and this was (allegedly) almost 2000 years ago.

A garage extension single story, cavity trays not installed correctly. two weeks to cut out and reinstall, make good the water damage to the internal walls £5.600

Wrong sized steel lintel installed over new entrance to three story building. three weeks and £17,000 to replace and repair the structural damage caused to the front elevation.

You are quoting ridiculous damage figures and you don't even appreciate that this is exactly the point - the quotes that you got are RIP OFFS.

Any work done should certainly be insured, I am not suggesting to deal with any guy who claims to be a construction worker.

It is very good that new EU states now appeared and people from there are willing to take their chances to help break local monopolies that strangle markets - IMO people do DIY in this country not because they love it, but because the alternative is so expensive that you might as well learn how to do it.

[hyperD]

For every good job by qualified people, I'm sure there is at least one bad (or slow) job by qualified people.

No, after spending several decades employing these types, I can guarantee you that that the trades are saturated with work shy, scamming, lazy, greedy, thick, lying, deceitful, useless, poor customer service morons.

Shoehorning in 600,000 immigrants does not change this stat.