Last updated at 06:44, Friday, 05 February 2010

BUILDING workers in West Cumbria are missing out on flood recovery work as insurance companies bring in outside contractors to repair homes and businesses.

Soon after the floods Workington MP Tony Cunningham appealed to insurance firms to use local contractors but businesses this week said they were being left out.

Trevor Dixon, 36, of Cockermouth building contractor TJ Dixon, said he had only secured two jobs from the floods and many of his past clients had been encouraged to use builders from Manchester, Liverpool and Newcastle.

Mr Dixon, who has been in the trade for 20 years and has run his business for three years, said: “It has been bad for builders over the last 12 months because there hasn’t been the work.

“We’re working on two houses and we’re confident they’ll be up and running before any that are being worked on by outside companiesbecause we have used rapid dry systems and the houses were dry within seven days. Because these national firms have 30 or 40 contracts each, properties will go into a queuing system and will take months before work is finished.

“I live two minutes away so we’re always on hand if anything goes wrong.”

Jim Scott, of Jim Scott Joinery Ltd in Maryport, said: “West Cumbria has been on its backside for a long time and this should’ve been a godsend for local people in the trade.

“Luckily we’ve a couple of houses to do but some local companies have nothing. Local companies would use the money they earn from the jobs locally whereas outside firms will take it out of the area.”

Andrew Bell, director of Brown & Armstrong Ltd in Maryport, said that the situation mirrored the Carlisle floods where local businesses failed to get many contracts.

“We have one job at Cockermouth Conservative Club and we got this work because we did the refurbishment and put an extension on.”

John Stobbart, owner of Stobbarts Ltd in Workington, said: “We have picked up one or two jobs from the commercial sector but nothing from private dwellings. The insurance companies are not letting local builders price work let alone do the work.

“I have no doubt at all that we are as good as any of the outside contractors and we should have been given more of an opportunity to do the work. The local economy could’ve done with benefiting from this.”

Mr Cunningham said: “I recently met with the chief executives of many insurance companies such as AXA and Aviva and I made it clear that people had to be given the chance to choose which companies they wanted to use. What we can’t do is force people to use local companies.”

A spokesman for the Association of British Insurers said: “Insurers’ number one priority is to get the customer back into their home as quickly as possible. Our priority is not to give business to local builders but to help out customers.

“We don’t set out to take work from local trades people. What insurance companies do is have a list of tradesmen and builders who they know will do a good job an efficient job and will complete it quickly.

“If customers know of a reliable builder then they can approach their insurance company about using them.”

First published at 19:28, Thursday, 04 February 2010
Published by http://www.timesandstar.co.uk