We often hear comments like "anyone can join FMB"; usually from journalists or from non-members who haven’t taken a closer look at our membership criteria.

We recently invited members to tell us what they want from the FMB. Their priorities included more promotion of FMB and its members to consumers and the generation of more job leads through the FMB Find A Builder service.

As an FMB member you want to stand out from the crowd and you know that your potential customers want to select a builder or specialist tradesperson who is competent and who has been vetted by a reputable organisation.

FMB has introduced site inspections on a 3 year cycle for members that have joined since February this year. The FMB is also extending its range of warranty products to give all members the opportunity to be able to offer warranties to their customers.

You may also have read about the work we are doing to develop an approved Competent Person Scheme for members. This will help to ensure that you are very well positioned to benefit from the substantial amount of energy efficiency retrofit works that will be generated through the government’s Green Deal scheme.

The FMB operates an effective Dispute Resolution service to help members and their clients. As part of this service, a number of FMB members have benefitted from the DAS Legal Protection insurance cover that is provided free to all full members, as it includes cover for your adjudication costs if you are in dispute with a client.

To further reinforce customer confidence in FMB members, we are verifying that all members have Public Liability and, where applicable, Employer’s Liability cover in place. You will have provided this information when you first joined the FMB, but we will be asking you to confirm that you still have the appropriate level of cover in place every year.

You will therefore be receiving a brief call in the next few weeks to just check a few policy details. It will be helpful if you can have your documents to hand for these calls, or simply have the following information ready:

Public Liability Insurance

- Insurer
- Policy Number
- Renewal date

Employer’s Liability Insurance (if applicable)

- Number of employees
- Current turnover
- Renewal date

Insurance backed warranties

- Name of provider if you currently offer insurance backed guarantees to your clients

These are further steps in FMB’s commitment to give consumers increased confidence in FMB members as competent, professional, dependable builders and specialist tradespeople.