BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, Podcasts.

Hello, welcome to the programme.

Now, at the end of the last series of the bottom line,

we were pondering on topics for this series,

and we asked listeners for suggestions.

And one that came in that particularly excited us

was a subject that, shockingly,

we've never, ever, ever covered before on the bottom line in our many

years of existence. It is the business of tradespeople, the folk who keep our boilers working,

our electricity flowing, our homes painted and decorated. It was the idea of listener Peter Gordon.

I wanted to hear a programme on tradespeople because first of all,

it's an important area of the economy. It's one that often gets overlooked. But also, of course,

you often need a tradesperson in a hurry when something goes wrong and needs fixing. And it's always

at your best and you think, are there enough? Who should I contact? Things have changed. We see

larger chains like Pimmolkow plumbers. We also see sole traders working through franchises,

and I'm wondering what effect this has had compared with, say, 20 years ago. To what extent

has technology changed things? I'm also wondering wondering from the tradesperson's point of view,

how important is social media getting good recommendations?

I also would be interested to know whether the area is becoming more or less competitive.

How are salaries faring?

Do people still want to become tradesmen and how easy it for people to get trained?

And lastly, what effect has the ending of free movement of European nationals had?

...