Petty crime is rising across the UK. Shoplifting has been declared a national crisis. Social media is full of videos of phone and bike thefts happening in broad daylight.
So why is no one is talking about the £98m a year crime wave that is tool theft?
For tradespeople, losing your tools isn’t just lost equipment – it’s lost work, income, and financial security for your family.
I know how devastating that can be. My grandfather was a roofer, and my father was a lift engineer, servicing lifts for the Greater London Council. My grandfather always told me: “If you’ve got a trade, you’ve got a job.”
But today, with tool theft at crisis levels, that simply isn’t true anymore. For too many workers, their livelihoods are being stolen from them overnight.
In 2023 alone, tradespeople lost out on £82m of work because of stolen tools, according to analysis by Direct Line business insurance. Every 12 minutes, another tradesperson is a victim of tool theft. To add insult to injury, most thefts happen at night, with tools stolen straight from vans parked outside homes.
This isn’t just a financial hit, it’s mental and physical stress that takes a huge toll. No other profession is expected to operate under the constant threat that the very tools they rely on to earn a living might be gone by morning.
Tradespeople are the backbone of this country, yet they are being driven out of their professions by this crime. On 3 February, I proudly stood alongside thousands of British tradespeople in Westminster to demand that Parliament take action. I spoke with builders, plumbers, electricians, roofers, and joiners from across the UK, many of whom told me they were on the verge of leaving the industry because they simply couldn’t afford to replace their stolen tools again and again.
According to figures from the Home Builders Federation (HBF) and the Construction Industry Training Board (CITB), Labour’s flagship pledge to build 1.5 million new homes is already at risk because of an extreme shortage of workers. An additional 25,000 bricklayers, 3,000 plumbers, 4,000 plasterers, 10,000 carpenters, and 3,000 electricians are needed to meet the Government’s targets.
By 2030, the UK is projected to be 250,000 tradespeople short, a crisis that will have cost the economy a total £98bn in missed economic growth. If ministers are serious about tackling the skills gap, they need to keep existing tradespeople in the industry by addressing tool theft.
Thieves who steal thousands of pounds worth of tools often get nothing more than a small fine. There is no national system for tracking stolen tools, meaning criminals can easily sell them at car boot sales or online with no consequences. Even when thefts are reported, only one per cent of stolen tools are ever recovered.
The police response seems to simply be to tell victims to “claim on insurance”. But for most tradespeople, that isn’t an option. The reality is that 83 per cent of tradespeople don’t have tool insurance, according to 1st Choice Insurance. Many find it too expensive, too complicated, or too slow to pay out.
We know that the insurance industry could do more but insurance alone won’t solve this problem.
If workers continue to feel that the Government is ignoring their concerns and that the police are failing to protect them, many will leave the profession entirely. With 20 per cent of construction workers aged over 50 and set to retire within the next decade, and an apprenticeship dropout rate as high as 40 per cent, Britain cannot afford to lose any more skilled tradespeople.
We need tougher penalties for tool thieves. Labour MP Amanda Martin’s Theft of Tools of Trade (Sentencing) Bill is a step in the right direction. The Government must establish a national stolen tools register to stop thieves from easily reselling stolen goods. If we can track stolen cars and mobile phones, we should be able to do the same for tools.
If the Government does not act now, more tradespeople will leave the profession, more businesses will suffer, and Britain will pay the price. This issue isn’t going away, and the people responsible for protecting Britain’s workers can’t afford to ignore it any longer.
Gary Ross is chief executive of Blip Insurance, a company that works closely with tradespeople
Comments
Leave a Comment