Analysis // Tool Theſt tool
It’s shortly before noon when the first van arrives, which is grey and unmarked, except for a stark red slogan reading “TRADESPEOPLE DESERVE BETTER” in red bubbly font. Despite London's notorious traffic, it somehow arrived minutes before the rest of the fleet. But before long, the entirety of Westminster Square is brough to a halt, absolutely gridlocked by a seemingly endless parade of tradespeople.
I y and unmark or a s
According to tool theft rally organiser Shoaib Awan, founder of Trades United, there are as many as 500 tradespeople taking part in this year's event. Each one has given up their day to get there (some also travelling hundreds of miles!), to join together and demand the government does something about the blight that is tool theft. Horns are honked, lights are flashed, and there’s even a tank driving around.
And their frustration is entirely understandable, too. New research from On The Tools has found that an alarming three-in-four tradespeople in the UK say they’ve had their tools stolen before, and as many as one-in-four report it happening three times or more.
adespeople in the UK e had
The average cost of goods stolen per tool theft is between £1,000 and £5,000, and is thought to cost the construction and renovation industry more than £2.8bn each year. To make matters worse, when tool theft does occur, a staggering nine-in-ten tradespeople (87%) say they didn’t receive adequate support from police following the crime. Heartbreakingly, it’s also estimated that only 1% of tradespeople ever fully recover their stolen tools. Although the
ed that only 1% o
Although the statistics already paint a worrying picture, those numbers don’t show the real and personal cost that accompany
t’s a grey and chilly February morning in London – the calm before the storm – but the distant sound of car horns is growing ever closer to Parliament's Westminster Square.
war The
theft on
Tradespeople at last month’s tool theſt rally made it clear they’re fed up with the lack of action so far, with many thinking it’s somehow getting even worse. Will we ever get a handle on the problem, and if so, how?
Words: George Dean
tool theft. Speaking with installers on the ground – or, perhaps more accurately, behind the wheel – at the tool theft rally, they’ve all got a similar story to tell.
Real problems As if to confirm those statistics, almost all of the installers I spoke with
said they’d been victims of tool theft themselves. In fact, one kitchen fitter, Dave Bishop, confides that he’s been a victim of tool theft no less than 16 times across his career – three incidents of which happened within 18 months of each other. “I think it’s probably the same people who come back every time to
do it,” he speculates. “They’ve taken them from the van, and they’ve even broken into my house when I unload all my tools. “We need tougher sentences on tool theft when people are caught,
and we need to stop them selling them at boot fairs. Unless you’ve got genuine receipts for them, you need to be stopped.” Speaking from their van, two kitchen and bathroom installers from Doc Home Repair say they’ve had their vehicle broken into three times in less than a year, and to add insult to injury, it’s even happened when the van has been empty. Afterwards, they still had to deal with the damage from having the vehicle ripped open. While we’re talking, one of them climbs out and walks around to
the other side of the van to show me the steel plate he’s had installed to cover up the damage from one of the break-in attempts. He recalls: “Just after I stuck that on, I turned my back for 10 minutes while I was in the supermarket and they tried to pull it off to break in again – they just won’t stop.” With so many frustrated tradespeople with personal experience in one place, I was interested in hearing their ideas about what “an answer” to the problem of tool theft actually is. Stephen Baker, from S.B. Multitrade, believes that the police are struggling to actually catch the people who are stealing from >
kbbreview
19
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64
