7.4 It is widely agreed within the industry that it is too easy to set up in business as a general contractor. No qualifications are required, no experience and virtually no capital. While market forces ultimately remove incompetent firms by depriving them of work, the existence of such unskilled producers is a threat to responsible firms, bad for consumers and highly damaging to the wider reputation of the industry.
7.5 There are two main ways to address this difficulty. They are registration/accreditation of main contractors (and specialist/trade contractors) and/or accreditation of operatives. A distinction may be drawn between work for public sector clients which is publicly funded, whether as a whole or in part, and that carried out for the private sector. This review is not directly concerned with minor repair or other domestic household work, which is normally carried out without any formal contract document. But if standards can be raised in the industry generally, it might also assist in that sector.53
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52 Some (especially the CIEC) prefer to avoid the expression "registration" because of its allegedly bureaucratic overtones.
51 Neither is the Review concerned with private house building for sale, where there is de facto compulsory registration and insurance cover.