Just ahead of the FIT Show, FENSA announced sanctions for non-compliance with the Minimum Technical Competencies requirements (MTCs), and the first reaction was one of ‘is this a sledgehammer to crack a walnut’?

The industry is making inroads in many areas but FENSA’a sanctions are designed to hurry the process along and is, indeed, very reasonable in its timescale and penalties.

At FIT, I had the good fortune to have the opportunity to sit down with four industry figures who know all about MTCs and to find out more about the scheme and why sanctions are a sensible way to focus the minds of those who should have already complied with these requirements, but have failed to do so.

Back to telling the public, given that no one has the money to highlight Minimum Technical Competencies. It probably needs one of the many UK television soap opera dramas to write in a storyline about a homeowner having problems selling their house because of windows being fitted by someone not properly qualified. Perhaps, even, some health and safety issue on the fitting of windows to bring the scheme to the publics’ attention.  Anyone know a soap opera scriptwriter?

The whole Competent Persons Scheme was the Department of Communities and Local Government initiative connected with the Green Deal and the need for properly qualified people to apply it.  In all fairness, it is not unreasonable to expect those performing tasks in someone’s home should be competent to do that job.  Most would argue that the vast majority of installers are competent: so why not have a piece of paper that confirms this and gives the public peace of mind?  There is always the argument that this is another revenue generating scheme – fees to be paid to be compliant.  In talking to our four experts, it simply doesn’t wash. With a £299 fee to travel sometimes hundreds of miles and then to spend a day evaluating an installer’s competency, write it all up and record the findings and issue a certificate is hardly a revenue generator and it could be argued that the fee should be much higher.

And what of the public in all this?  How do they know to ask their installer whether they have the correct certification?  Smiles all round at that one!  The biggest problem with all these schemes is making the public aware they exist.  I asked them how this should be done – an advertising campaign on television and the national press?  Absolutely perfect!  But who has the budget to do this, and who should do it?  Unanimously – the government, although everyone recognised that wasn’t going to happen.  So how will the public get to know?  It’s much the same as the WERS and DERS issue whereby it will probably be a competent solicitor checking everything when a house conveyance is going through and questioning whether the new windows were installed by a ‘competent person’.

The fact is that there may well be installers who are blissfully unaware that they have a GQA qualification already that is acceptable under the competency requirements and in other cases many large companies are investing heavily in ensuring that their installers are fully compliant.  It is not difficult or particularly time consuming to achieve the ‘ticket’ and, quite simply, it has to be done.  The message is, don’t hang around, it’s not worth it to find that you cannot get certification for your installation.