I’m in desperate need of a new cloakroom suite as the one I have is leaking from the cistern that was supposedly repaired a few weeks back but which still leaks. My daughter – just back from university – is cross with me. “How is it that you can do the job that you do, yet we have to put up with a leaky loo?” she demands to know.

The answer is… (and if you’ve read my many grouses on the subject you’ll probably already have guessed) that I can’t find anyone reliable to do the work.

From the qualified plumber who didn’t quite manage to fix the leak but is too busy to come back just yet, to the two others who were supposed to visit yesterday and didn’t, (we finally caught up with one as he was driving back from the beach where he’d spent the day with his son!) plus all the plasterers, electricians and heating engineers who’ve not quite managed to do the simple jobs for which they’ve been paid good money… all bar one have let me down.

I must confess that a large part of me would rather put up with regularly emptying the drip bowl under the leaking cloakroom cistern than seek out someone who will actually be able to do the job!

The Government’s announcement last week that it is making headway in its move to shake up apprenticeship funding and make the apprenticeship scheme more affordable to more employers, has filled me with the hope that in a few years there may be large numbers of decent tradespeople out there, so that the problems I and so many other householders have, may seem less insurmountable as time goes on. If you missed the announcement you can read it here and I’d love to receive your thoughts on which of the options set out you think will work best.

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Yours,

Jan Hobbs