Grandfather Rights Are (Finally) Ending, And It’s About Bloody Time

Who’s heard of Grandfather Rights?

If you’ve worked on a UK construction site, you probably have. It’s that outdated loophole that let certain site managers carry on building homes for decades without a single formal qualification, just because they’ve “been doing it a long time.”

Here’s how it worked:

If you’d been working in construction for years, you could get a Black CSCS Manager’s Card, not because you’d earned a qualification, not because you knew the regs, but because you’d simply been around long enough.

And I’m sorry, but that’s not good enough anymore.

🔚 The Good News: It’s Coming to an End

As of 31st December 2024, anyone who got their CSCS card under Grandfather Rights must now have an NVQ to renew it.

About time.

Because experience alone isn’t enough when you’re running sites, managing trades, and signing off buildings that real families are going to live in.

🎓 I Had the Qualification, But They Still Looked Down on Me

Let me tell you something that still stings.

I have my Academically Qualified Person (AQP) white CSCS card.

I earned a Level 4 Chartered Institute of Building Site Management qualification. When I worked on multiple HSE-notified refurb projects across Brighton and Hove.

I knew my regs. I knew safety. I knew how to run a clean, compliant site.

But still, because I was young, and because I had “only” gone to college, I was seen as “less experienced” than these old-school managers.

You know the type:

• They’d been “in the game” for 30+ years.

• Never touched a digital drawing.

• Never read a spec.

• Just building how they were taught back in the ‘80s, before CDM even existed.

And the worst part?

They’re the ones teaching the next generation.

🤯 The Backwards Culture Is Still Alive

Let me tell you what happened when I joined a new company. I met a well-loved Project Manager who’d been in the industry “since before I was born.”

Everyone idolised him. He walked on water.

And in my first week on site, he looked at me and said, hand gestures and all:

“Production is up here, health and safety is down there to me.”

Let that sink in.

That’s what he led with. That’s what he wanted me to know about him. And you know what I said?

“Well, we’re just not going to get on then.”

And I turned around and walked away.

Because I wasn’t about to spend another day pretending that kind of attitude was OK.

🧨 The Truth? These Managers Are Still Getting Away With It

What makes me furious is this:

Young people come out of college excited, qualified, full of knowledge. They want to do things the right way. They want to build homes safely, properly, to standard.

But what happens when they step onto a real site?

They get told to shut up.

Told they don’t F****** know anything.

Told that “this is how it’s always been done.”

And eventually, they start unlearning everything they were taught just to fit in.

It’s disgusting. And it’s happening every day.

I never stayed quiet. But trust me, it cost me.

Because when you’re the only one saying “this isn’t right,” you become the problem.

🏗️ Grandfather Rights Might Be Ending. But the Mentality Isn’t

Yes, they’re finally phasing out the loophole.

But let me ask you this:

Even if these “experienced” managers go and sit the NVQ:

Are they going to change how they think?

Are they going to stop prioritising production over safety?

Are they going to stop teaching bad habits to the next wave of builders?

Or are we just giving a qualification to someone who has no intention of actually using it?

❌ I Don’t Want a House Built in 2025 by Someone Who Learned in 1995

I wouldn’t want someone building my home based on 30-year-old knowledge.

I’d rather take someone straight out of college — with up-to-date training, fresh understanding of the regs, and the humility to learn — any day of the week.

You?

🎤 Final Thought

If you’re a young person in this industry right now, I see you.

You’re not wrong. You’re not too strict. You’re not “a jobsworth.”

You’re trying to do things right. That matters.

And if you’ve ever been made to feel small by someone riding the wave of Grandfather Rights, just remember: they needed a loophole to get where you’re qualified to stand.

The culture is broken. But we don’t have to inherit it.

Let’s rebuild it. From the ground up.

💬 What would you prefer: someone with experience but no qualification or education, or someone qualified and fresh? Drop a comment, I’d love to know what you think.

📹 I’ll be talking about this more on @TheUnfilteredFemaleSiteManager. It’s time we said it how it is.