Realistic Hourly rates for Trades

Ken68

My neighbour is a property developer and employs foreign workers, straight off the boat, into one of his houses, then he contracts them out to different trades. Most work the land but some are electrcians and plumbers.
They have done some work on his house next door and they seem competent, hard working, not a lot of English.
SO rates should be coming DOWN, That is the trend.

woodbutcher_2

leveller2911 wrote: »

Site work down here is cut throat and I'm sure the site rates are less.

All the sole traders and partnerships down here seem fairly busy.. Good luck Woodbutcher hope it picks up soon, wish you luck .

Its strange down here as there is money about but where I live (Rother District ) the average wage is £16k a year as many work in service industries.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/datablog/2011/mar/29/indices-multiple-deprivation-poverty-england#zoomed-picture

Thanks for the good wishes leveller. If you look on the link, you will see a map, the second most deprived area of the country is about 1 mile from where i live.

I don't do site work anymore, as you say, it's dog eat dog and i'm past all that now. Realise it's not all affluence in the South as that map shows Clacton on Sea to be the number one deprived area of the country, which surprised me. It is the only Southern area at the top though.

On the other hand,if you get a map for the most affluent areas, they are almost exclusively down South.

Luckily, i have lived through many boom and busts and made provision for this recession in the last boom. Entered it with no mortgage and no outstanding debt, so the financial pressures are not there for me. Some aren't so lucky. I know plenty of tradesmen who have virtually no work ahead of them, with families to feed. Perversely, some tradesmen are stacked out.

Strange times.

Furts

Ken68 wrote: »

My neighbour is a property developer and employs foreign workers, straight off the boat, into one of his houses, then he contracts them out to different trades. Most work the land but some are electrcians and plumbers.
They have done some work on his house next door and they seem competent, hard working, not a lot of English.
SO rates should be coming DOWN, That is the trend.

Many of these operatives are a menace to the construction industry, driving down standards and prices that it will take years to recover from. Think about it. Little command of English hence Building Regulations, NHBC Technical Standards, Wiring Regulations, GasSafe, Codes of Practice, good practice, Health and Safety etc can all be vague concepts to them.

The reality is rates should be rising - £80 per day as a self employed tradesman is not sustainable. Indeed many Polish workers have returned home because the UK market is now too cheap and cut throat.

leveller2911

woodbutcher wrote: »

http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/datablog/2011/mar/29/indices-multiple-deprivation-poverty-england#zoomed-picture


On the other hand,if you get a map for the most affluent areas, they are almost exclusively down South.

Luckily, i have lived through many boom and busts and made provision for this recession in the last boom. Entered it with no mortgage and no outstanding debt, so the financial pressures are not there for me. Some aren't so lucky. I know plenty of tradesmen who have virtually no work ahead of them, with families to feed. Perversely, some tradesmen are stacked out.

Strange times.

Indeed very strange times, just down the road from me is Hastings and parts of it are really suffering and as I mentioned theres no manufacturing ,engineering industry down here its all tourism and service industries but we seem to pay for living within the commuter belt with regards to house prices etc.West Sussex has always been an affluent area , bit like Surrey..

Like you I know some really good tradesmen with little work but others are stacked out.Theres no logic to what is happening. Lets hope the powers that be get there act together and build low cost affordable housing and encourage small businesses...I could go on....

Ken68

I wouldn't have thought employing foreign plumbers etc is a bad thing.
Central heating isn't a unique British thing and in cold Poland ,for example, has to be even more reliable, and anyway Gas Safe probably have a reciprocal arrangement, and if not the work would be signed off by the English foreman.

leveller2911

Ken68 wrote: »

I wouldn't have thought employing foreign plumbers etc is a bad thing.QUOTE]


My problem with many of the foreign labour is British tradesmen can't compete. What I mean by this is many of the foreign workers will share a house and all the associated bills. If you have 5 foreign workers sharing a house all paying 20% of the bills they don't need to earn as much as a British worker who pays 100% of the rent/mortgage,etc etc etc..

That is where I believe its wrong and a race to the bottom Society loses long term. I have worked with Polish and Lithuanian workers (not qualified) they are no different from British workers, some are willing to work really hard and others are willing to let them. When it comes to qualified tradesmen I see a difference in that the their type of building is different from much of ours and many of them are not capable of a good standard of finish imo.

YoungBusinessman

leveller2911 wrote: »

Ken68 wrote: »

I wouldn't have thought employing foreign plumbers etc is a bad thing.QUOTE]


My problem with many of the foreign labour is British tradesmen can't compete. What I mean by this is many of the foreign workers will share a house and all the associated bills. If you have 5 foreign workers sharing a house all paying 20% of the bills they don't need to earn as much as a British worker who pays 100% of the rent/mortgage,etc etc etc..

That is where I believe its wrong and a race to the bottom Society loses long term. I have worked with Polish and Lithuanian workers (not qualified) they are no different from British workers, some are willing to work really hard and others are willing to let them. When it comes to qualified tradesmen I see a difference in that the their type of building is different from much of ours and many of them are not capable of a good standard of finish imo.

Agree with this, how are tradesmen meant to compete if theres Polish(for example) workers with no insurance, no overheads willing to give the job a bash for half the price. I also dont believe the work is of a high enough standard,speaking from what iv personally witnessed. Would never cut corners and employ them for my own house to save a bob or two, especially if they can hardly understand English.

Ken68

Competition is the name of the game. It keeps prices down.
Most of the work installing or repairing a central heating system is just plain routine and just one responsible skilled man can oversee several jobs. Not unlike the English apprentice system.
Protectionism isn't MONEYSAVING.

chiefgoobster

OP....whoever and whatever you do decide, always remember you
pay for what you get in this life.

leveller2911

Ken68 wrote: »

Competition is the name of the game. It keeps prices down.
Most of the work installing or repairing a central heating system is just plain routine and just one responsible skilled man can oversee several jobs. Not unlike the English apprentice system.
Protectionism isn't MONEYSAVING.

But you have highlighted one small sector of the industry. The British apprenticeship scheme now is but a shadow of what it was. In fact you can do a 6 month coarse and come out qualified . I did 3 years and that only gave me a taster, 5 or 7 years would give a better insight and training.

I think your post is valied but only for a small sector of the construction Industry.

Don't mention Protectionism to the French , they've practiced it for decades and still do.