THE building trade is backing calls for changes to the law to protect vulnerable householders from rogue workers.

A campaign launched this week by The Northern Echo and the region's trading standards chiefs is demanding an end to door-to-door cold calling by property repair companies.

The legislation would make it a criminal offence for cowboy builders to turn up at a house unannounced to carry out work they claim - often wrongly - is needed.

The Doorstoppers campaign already has the support of police and trading standards officials across the North-East, and last night the Federation of Master Builders added its weight to the crusade.

The organisation's director of external affairs, Andrew Large, said: "We think it is tremendously important that there is adequate consumer protection for people who are potentially under threat from rogue traders, particularly from building workers, and we think a ban on doorstep trading on those kind of things would be very, very useful.

"We hear far too many horror stories of people who are losing out because they are being threatened by people who have come around the door and say, 'I am in the area and you have a tile loose, can I fix it for you?' and before you know it you have a bill for thousands of pounds for a fault you knew nothing about.

"There is a very, very serious issue here and the only adequate way of resolving it is to put a ban on the door-to-door trading of these activities and services."

Mr Large added: "FMB members are very much the sort of firms that would be doing small to medium-sized building works, particularly things like domestic extensions, kitchen re-fits and new garages, and clearly that's the sort of work where it is a pre-arranged exercise with an estimate and when tradespeople will go through the normal process - they will not just turn up at someone's door."

North Yorkshire County Council's head of trading standards and regulatory services, Stuart Pudney, said: "The proportion of businesses which will be affected will be very small and the proportion of honest businesses which will be affected is minute.

"Research we have done shows that 74 per cent of North Yorkshire households have received a cold call in the past month."