In desperation, federation looks into setting up mutual insurer
Building sites will be deserted by scaffolders and roofers by Easter 2003, as tradesmen use all of their profit to pay their employers' liability (EL) premiums.
Some scaffolders and roofers are already working without EL cover, Flat Roofing Alliance director Bill Jenkins warned.
"You have the very real possibility that some people will be trading without insurance, which is not only illegal but highly dangerous," he said.
Jenkins said the alliance's members set aside money for winter, when they sometimes had to pay their employees for days when poor weather prevented work.
But this year they have been forced to spend the winter's money on their "absolutely astronomical" EL premiums, he said.
"It's going to put people out of business. That kind of increase is their profit margin and more," Jenkins said.
"They can't build it into their figures because their business for the next six months is quoted for and they're committed to it."
Jenkins said the National Federation of Roofing Contractors was looking into establishing a mutual insurer.
The National Specialist Contractors Council has surveyed its members on premium rises and plans to present the information to the DTI.
"One member wrote to me and gave me a list of 30 brokers he had contacted," Jenkins said.
"He said that 26 of them wouldn't quote him and three were going through the same insurer.
"We're still trying to find sources of cover."
