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    Safety

    FMB repeats call for licensing: competence and safety implications for UK builders

    March 23, 2026|

    Reviewed by Tom Sullivan

    FMB repeats call for licensing: competence and safety implications for UK builders

    First reported on The Construction Index

    30 Second Briefing

    The Federation of Master Builders is urging the UK government to introduce mandatory licensing for all building trades as part of reforms to create a Single Construction Regulator, arguing current “halfway house” measures leave “vast gaps of no regulation”. Chief executive Brian Berry says responsible SMEs are being undercut by rogue traders operating with little oversight, causing serious financial and emotional harm to homeowners. The FMB wants the new regulator’s scope expanded to administer a state‑controlled licensing scheme that sets a clear competence baseline and strengthens enforcement.

    Technical Brief

    • FMB’s consultation response proposes embedding a mandatory licensing function directly within the Single Construction Regulator’s remit.
    • Federation explicitly wants licensing to cover “all the building trades”, not limited to higher‑risk work.
    • State-controlled licensing is framed as closing “vast gaps of no regulation” in the current regime.
    • FMB criticises existing “halfway house measures” as inadequate proxies for formal safety and competence control.
    • Clear baseline requirements are envisaged as pre‑conditions for companies to operate, not voluntary accreditation.
    • Enforcement is expected to be centralised through the new regulator, rather than fragmented across multiple schemes.
    • FMB stresses licence design must be workable for SMEs while still targeting poor practice and non‑compliance.

    Our Take

    The Federation of Master Builders has already been reshaping its standard contracts to align with the Building Safety Act 2022, so a UK‑wide licensing regime would likely plug directly into those duty‑holder structures rather than start from scratch.

    With England’s housing planning approvals hitting a post‑covid and decade high in 2025, any move towards a Single Construction Regulator in the United Kingdom would land just as build volumes are rising, increasing the practical impact of licensing on SME contractors.

    Within our 139 Policy stories and 453 safety/standard‑tagged pieces, the FMB is one of the more frequently recurring UK trade bodies, signalling that its push for licensing is coming from an organisation already influential in shaping construction compliance practice.

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    Prepared by collating external sources, AI-assisted tools, and Geomechanics.io’s proprietary mining database, then reviewed for technical accuracy & edited by our geotechnical team.

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