Starting, growing, insuring and eventually selling a plumbing, heating or electrical business in the UK.
The step nobody prepares you for is the one from working for yourself to running a business with people in it. On your own the sums fit in your head. The day you take on your first employee they stop fitting, and employers' liability insurance stops being optional.
Starting a plumbing or electrical business in the UK, and what you have to be registered for before you can sign your own work off: Gas Safe, Part P, a competent person scheme. Sole trader against limited company at your size. The insurance you are required to hold and the insurance everyone assumes is required. Growing with subcontractors instead of a fourth van, and what the business is worth if you ever sell it.
The same builder can hold two principal contractor roles on one domestic job. Part 2A covers Building Regulations compliance; CDM covers health and safety. Each brings its own duties.
New rules in England let councils charge for advice that used to start with a free hour, for checking private approvers' paperwork and for enforcement work. Each council sets its prices, in a scheme that has to be online before it applies.
From 15 October, new installations must follow BS 7671 Amendment 4, Electrical Contracting News reports. Citing SELECT, it says a job designed to the old version may be finished to it if the contract allows. Of the forms, the EICR changes most.
Your former client's buyer wants the certificate. A paid archive search can end empty. The owner applies for regularisation, with a fee to pay and a separate question over who ultimately bears the cost.
A bill introduced on 14 October would make freeholders and others responsible for building safety fix unsafe cladding without delay, with fines of up to £500,000 for ignoring a Remediation Order. Contractors who have already paid for the work would get a simpler claim against the manufacturer.
An apprentice can repay the investment, but the available British model puts recovery after qualification. What they produce matters, and so does the time your engineer spends teaching them.
Your council's written notice sets the stage notifications for your job. A private building control body has its own list of stages. Photographs can provide evidence where the body accepts them, but sending them is not approval.
MHCLG wants private landlords in England held to legal deadlines for damp and mould repairs. How long they would get, and from when, is still to be decided. The consultation closes on 18 December 2026.
NICEIC's £834 covers application and 12 months' certification. NAPIT's £786 covers application and initial assessment, with no published annual fee or confirmation that it is included. Both include VAT. The prices are not like for like.
You notify the boiler and its controls through Gas Safe. A new chimney liner or electrical circuit takes another route. An unvented cylinder depends on the scope of your registration.
The Home Office guide now covers individual subcontractors you bring in for a customer's job, and can make you liable for labour another business supplies. What protects you depends on who holds which contract.
Petrol and diesel prices now sit next to forecourts on Google Maps, in the app your drivers already use for directions. Handy for picking a fuel stop; whether the detour pays is still your call.
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