Hi Darren,
The law for licensing was passed by the Scottish Parliament as a Safety Community Intiative, you're right if you are legit then why pay for a license. But we have to respect the law which was passed as it is a criminal offense not to have one, and in your case you will have to appear in court and face a fine from anything to £70 - £2000 max.
The reason why they passed this law is window cleaners have direct access to peoples property on a regular basis and therefore will know when people were absent. Whereas a plumber etc.. will only have access to the property at the time of the job.
As you will be aware there have been many issues where bogus window cleaners have used window cleaning for their acts of crime which then tarnishes the window cleaning trade. They tend to use our trade more than any other trade so this is the reason the Police requested that window cleaners also be licensed. There is a lot of other legal stuff but will not go into it.
The law will never be scrapped so the SLWCN's arguement with Councils was okay we accept this law as we cannot change it so it has to work for our Industry. The only way it can work is if it was widely known and anytime you went to quote for a job they always asked for your licence. This also stops the beer brigade as we all are aware prices are way too low and why should we worry about putting our prices up. Customers will have to accept that we pay insurance, licenses etc.. so window cleaning is a luxury so they have to pay the going price. The only way to do this if everyone was on the same level playing field and therefore pricing as a business.
There is also a lot wrong the Councils are doing so there needs to be some representation from the Industry working with them to better our Industry. This is what we are trying to do which is a hard task but we have come a long way and now seeing the benefits.
We are not saying licensing will save all our problems but as it is law the Councils and Police have to make it work. But if it worked and ran properly then that £54 would be peanuts as you would be charging what you were worth. Hope this makes senses as it is complicated.
My advise is to get yourself licensed as you can be stopped from trading, it has been done and add the fees to your customers. This is what I do and hold 4+ licenses, one of which is just for one job.
Hope this makes sense.
