Local tradesmen are busier than ever - what CoL crisis?

[Ivylea]

I’m just wondering if it’s like this everywhere else - we are trying to get hold of:

electrician
plumber
joiner
decorator
handyman
floor layer

And it is unbelievably difficult. Lots of enquiries are being met with “so sorry I have too much work on, I can’t take any more on.” If someone does agree to come to price up then they’re not turning up - they mustn’t need the work!

It’s fabulous that they are so busy (well, good for them if not so good for us), but I am confused how this is the case against a backdrop of a CoL crisis?

Yep. I was recently in a designer shopping outlet (not shopping, just killing time between appointments). I could not believe the amount of people there, almost all with a bag from at least one of the shops.

They actually had marshalls controlling the traffic, it was that busy!

Plumbers are always busy at this time of year because of boiler services, fixing heating that people didn't realise was broken etc

I wonder what percentage are house repairs versus home improvements like a new bathroom?

I really doubt the people that are doing home repairs and are shopping in designer outlet stores are the ones feeling the pinch of the COL crisis. Not everyone is impacted by it, I thought that’d go without saying.

Just because you can’t get ahold of the people mentioned I don’t think it’s fair to say ‘what COL crisis?’ The COL is impacting thousands if not millions of people…

Part of that is that many of the trades returned home because of Brexit/Covid so supply is much lower.

Also, whilst some peoples are very hard hit by the CoL crisis, many others are just as if not more comfortable. In my commuter town loads of people are £500+ per month better off in fares now they're (more or less) always wfh, for example. If they're saving on childcare too....

I think a lot of people are doing up their houses, having extensions, making modifications to their houses instead of moving, because of the CoL and house prices.

The CoL crisis isn't affecting everyone. There's a labour shortage so people will be using this to their advantage by getting a pay rise or better paid job. Plus some of the Eastern European tradespeople may have returned to their home countries post Brexit.

Also people might be deciding to improve rather than move. The cost of an extension could be a lot less than moving from say, a 3 bed semi to a 4 bed detached, so a much more expensive house, plus stamp duty.

I also think a lot of the old one man band tradesmen are getting on a bit and as in all other walks of life Covid brought about increased retirement rates. Many of those were trained by the old nationalised industries, the Coal Board, CEGB, BT, British Gas etc, private business just doesn't train people in the same numbers, so there's no one coming through to replace them.

I think many people who are comfortable enough to own their own home are generally in a position to afford (or to cut other things to be able to afford) necessary upkeep.

I don't think we are in any way 'average' as we certainly have a higher than average income, but in the next couple weeks, we have the chimney sweep booked in, the plumber coming to service the boiler and replace some bathroom fittings (because they leak horribly and we haven't been able to stop the leaks), roofer coming to sort some roof leaks, and we're doing some decorating in several rooms ourselves (but obviously purchasing the supplies).

Dh has a business in a trade and several employees working for him and they have never not been swamped since COVID. Some of that is overseas sales (they built stuff they can ship to people to install themselves or they can do the installation, if in the UK). But people who have money to spend have not slowed up. Interestingly, when I think about it, I'm cautious what we spend on food shopping and holidays and fuel, but house repairs seem necessary, so I don't think as much about them.

I'm not sure where the surprise is. The COL crisis is about a general rise in prices. If someone's income was significantly over their outgoings, the rise in the cost of everything might well not affect them significantly - sure, everything costs more, but still everything can be afforded normally, just a bit less is left over and saved. This may be because of a good solid income or just low outgoings.

The fact is that not everyone's balance was so precarious that the current inflation and rising costs have made a big difference. This doesn't change the fact that it's awful that it has for a lot of people. But there's no point pretending that 'COL crisis' suddenly means everybody is struggling to afford their typical outgoings.

I also think though that 'sorry, have to much work on!' is also used as an avoidance tactic when someone doesn't want a job. It doesn't actually mean they have other work on, but may mean that they can't be asked to do it for what they would charge due to rising costs of raw materials, insurance, fuel, etc. I know dh often does this (he does have a lot of work on), but it's how he gets out of smaller more annoying jobs.

Do not discount though that some people may not be working as much as they once were. I know in my industry (professional, office roles), we've seen people falling like flies since COVID due to burnout and stress. Our occupational health service is completely on their knees with people who are on long-term sick leave or working less than they used to do to phased working patterns, etc. I cannot imagine that the trades are any different, but with fewer protections, so people may just be reducing their working hours to cope.

We’ve been impacted by COL crisis in that our mortgage, electricity/gas bills increased, but we bought well below our means on purpose so can absorb those costs.

Lots of our friends are still on their initial fixed rates that are low. Other people that we know who were ftb bought fairly cheap houses as the size of their deposit limited what they could buy, so with two decent salaries coming in they are still not struggling.

Not everyone is impacting by the COL crisis - plenty havn't had falls in income nor rises in interest rates/rents etc.

Even those with falls in income or rises in expenses still need work doing on their homes, i.e. repairs, maintenance, etc. You can't put things off for ever and sometimes there are urgent repairs needed that just can't wait, like a leaking roof, or faulty electrics or faulty boiler, etc.

Because of the massive increases in house prices, lots of people can't afford to move into bigger homes, so they're having to extend their existing home for an extra bedroom, garden office, or whatever they need.

Re tradesmen, a lot of it is sheer lack of tradesmen. We've not been training enough people for 2 or 3 decades now. Lots of elder tradesmen have retired or winding down to retirement, and there's no one to replace them.

As always, no single answer! Just a perfect storm

Is this a real question?

I can't believe people are this clueless.

And yet every week there's another thread like this.

What is your actual point OP?

There are far too few electricians in the country. Between expedited COVID retirements, post-Brexit skill drain, lack of appetite and/ or training opportunities for fresh blood and a growing demand for these skills with green technologies - there just aren't enough to go around.

I think that tradesmen are probably in a position to pick and choose the jobs they want. They might fit in a small job whilst waiting for supplies or something on a large contract, but it’s easy to ignore or fail to turn up to quote, if you don’t want the job.

The actual point is, that the OP has a number of things that require the expertise of tradesmen and she’s having difficulty finding them. In the past, you might have replaced things, now you repair them, but they mostly require someone who knows what they’re doing.

Some interesting points, thanks all!

As I said it’s great for the nation that these tradesmen are so busy, it’s just not what we anticipated!

It is great for those working in the trades but the lack of skilled tradespeople is going to be a real problem for industrial growth, domestic house building and general smooth running of things.

It's crazy that there isn't a bigger drive to encourage more youngsters into these well paid jobs but the lingering snobbery about manual work is entrenched.

We are, what my Mother used to call, a nation of Have and Have not.

Believing that there is no CoL crisis because the wealthy are still wealthy is exactly why we have a socio-economic crisis.

Surely that's obvious?

I literally don't have any choice to do the work we're having done. At the moment we could stand in the kitchen when someone is in the shower and have a second shower from all the water from the bathroom. It's a miracle the ceiling hasn't caved in frankly.

The issue we have is it's caused by previous house owners not keeping up with maintenance and the survey didn't pick it up. However it's also complicated by the wall being built wrong so that has to come down, the bath has to come out probably smashing some tiles on the way out, new flooring, new joists, new bath, can't afford fucking tiles so it'll have to be shower board, new toilet because that's also fucked.

Costing us 4k because we're having to use one of those Facebook companies because I have cancer and we need this fixing immediately as the bath has sprouted mushrooms in the last week. No doubt the bathroom won't last us until we move again but I don't care, it'll be water tight.

I don't have a choice sadly

I think a lot has to do with a lack of skilled trades people. Certainly where I live for many years school leavers were discouraged from trades and were pushed towards Universities. Many skilled trade people in my area retired during the COVID and a couple of others who are neighbours of mine have gone into big companies as In House Electricians. The reason they give are regular hours, they had issues with people paying their bills when the job is done, people not understanding that the costs or raw materials may have gone up drastically since the job may have been quoted for or looking for big discounts when the job is done. They tell me that many of their friends have done the same.

Tried to book a boiler service this summer, contacted 2 plumbers, the first didn’t show up when agreed then when I chased him he said he had a more important job to go to, the second one never responded when I agreed his quote and asked when he could come. BOTH have had quite big moans on their Facebook pages about customers not getting back to them after quoting etc. It’s good they’re busy enough to turn down work I guess.
Although I do wonder if enough people are going into trades, there seems to be a desire for kids to go to uni no matter what. (I say I wonder as I really don’t know!)

This subject comes up a lot, in different permutations. The answer is always a mixture of COL crisis not affecting everyone equally/at all, and some of the spending you can see actually being an attempt from people to cut their cloth. So people may be trying to do as much as they can with their current home if they now can't afford to move. Just because you now can't afford an extra 100k on the mortgage doesn't mean you don't have 20k for renovations, or similar.

There is no evidence of any COL crisis where I live.

About 30% of people own their own homes outright, I am just putting that out there. You are probably hanging out with of your own demographic. Because as adults we meet on college courses and at work plus neighbours which means poor or more affluent neighbourhoods.

Plus the push by Blair to get 50% of people in to higher education.

Some "technical" schools, sorry can't remember what they were called, were set up a couple of decades ago at around the time there were "maths" schools, "sports" schools, "languages" schools, etc.

One was set up in a town near us. Brand new, atrium and all (paid for by PFI). It closed down a few years later because of not enough pupils. Parents think their little darlings are "too good" for the trades, so push them down the academic road towards A levels and Uni which many of them aren't capable of and don't have the aptitude for. Far too many parents are just snobs who can't bear to admit to their friends and family that their little darling isn't going to Uni!

Thanks Blair! Your 50% target for students going to Uni has really screwed the country!