From Christopher Booker's notebook (Filed: 15/05/2005) The Sunday Telegrapgh
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EU directive delivers a nasty shock.
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The sole measure EU directive delivers a nasty shock To Tony Blair, Michael Howard and Charles Kennedy, "Europe" is a lofty abstraction which, for various reasons, they don't much wish to talk about. But for Dave Walker, a 43-year-old electrician in Bristol, it has become a very frightening reality, forcing him to wonder whether he and his family can afford to go on living in their home.
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Last February, Mr Walker was asked by Mrs Godfrey, a pensioner living in a council flat, to fit a heated towel rail in her bathroom. Up to January thiswould have presented no problem. He could have carried out the work quickly and efficiently, charging her around £60.Now, however, Mr Walker was aware of the new "Part P" building regulations,rushed through last summer by John Prescott to comply with EC directive 98/34,under which Britain had to harmonise with various European electrical standards.
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This meant that, to carry out all but very minor domestic electrical work, MrWalker had two choices. Either he would have to be certified as a "competent domestic installer" by the Government-approved National Inspection Council for Electrical Installation Contracting (NICEIC). Or, to carry out wiring or anywork in a bathroom or kitchen, his work would have to be approved and inspected,for a fee, by his local council.
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Mr Walker therefore applied to NICEIC to be certified, on a yearly basis, which currently costs £877.50. He even sent a cheque. But he was told he could not be certified unless NICEIC could inspect his work on a whole house.
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Since his work consists only of small jobs for homeowners, and the only house he had wired washis own, which did not count, NICEIC was unable to certify him and sent back his money.Despite the fact that he has full City & Guilds qualification, which required five years' theoretical and practical work, and has done his job for years without complaint, Mr Walker had to tell his customer that, under the new rules, since the towel rail was for a bathroom, she would have to ask the council's permission.Bristol city council replied, in what it calls "a standard letter", that it had "no objection to the installation of a heated towel rail".
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To get approval,though, Mr Walker would have to provide a certificate guaranteeing the safety ofall the electrical installation in her home. This, he calculated, would involve more than a day's work, inspecting and reporting on all her wiring and each plugand light socket, and would cost about £600 - which was plainly out of thequestion.
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After further consultation with the council, the problem was solved byplacing the towel rail outside the bathroom.
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But Mr Walker now finds himself disqualified from doing do much of the workwhich until recently provided most of his income. If it were not for the moneyhe gets for fostering two children, he says, he would be unable to keep up his mortgage payments.
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According to NICEIC, the purpose of the new regulations is to stamp out the"cowboys" who do faulty and dangerous work. But the effect, it seems, is the opposite.
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Anecdotal evidence suggests that many small electricians are either surviving only by ignoring Part P, or are giving up. (When Mr Walker went to the Jobcentre he was told many electricians had been in asking about other work). This creates an opening for precisely the "cowboys" Part P was intended to eliminate.
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It seems many householders must choose between a "competent" electrician who has had to raise his charges to pay for certification, or a "cowboy" who can do it on the cheap.
What few homeowners have grasped is that Part P applies equally todo-it-yourself electrical work. To carry out any work in a kitchen or bathroom without council permission is an offence punishable by a fine of up to £5,000. And to have it inspected will cost you an average £65.
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Thank you, Mr Prescott -and of course those diligent civil servants who pointed out directive 98/34 tohim.
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