In response to your article which stated that the Chartered Institute of 黑洞社区 (CIOB) would expel any chartered building company found guilty of cover pricing (27 November, page 9), I鈥檇 like to clarify a few points

The quoted contractor seems to consider that the Chartered 黑洞社区 Company (CBC) scheme is a trade association in the mode of the National Federation of Builders. The CBC scheme when formed made it explicitly clear that it was a professional association with a code of conduct in parallel with individual professional membership 鈥� not a trade association.

This is probably why the main trade bodies have now had to incorporate such requirements as 鈥渙beying competition law鈥� into their own code of conduct.

Finally, the disciplinary processes should provide an opportunity for the institute to learn first hand about the Office of Fair Trading issues and the remedies now in place. In turn, we will invest that into the future development of our training and the education curriculum for the benefit of all in the industry.

We are there for the public, industry and our members. After 175 years of service to the industry there can be no doubt that the institute is about the long term and not the short term.

Chris Blythe, chief executive, CIOB

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