HETAS wants to start training sweeps to provide a ‘chimney sweep and service engineer of the future’.

Bruce Allen, chief executive, confirmed the move into sweeping courses is ‘very likely’ to happen in the future. However, the HETAS boss ruled out training new sweeps from scratch.

“There would be prerequisites for a chimney sweeping course, for people who have experience and a level of competence already,” revealed Bruce.

“We are committed to a wider-ranging, wider-skilled chimney sweep and service engineer of the future, with very much an environmental and safety bias in their work.”

Bruce claims there is a gap in the current set up whereby the servicing element for solid fuel installs isn’t ‘owned’ by anyone. He alleges this was a big bone of contention between HETAS and the associations, and partly responsible for the collapse of the Chimney Safety Group.

He denied claims that, by moving into sweep training, HETAS would be in direct competition with the associations.

“We’re moving with the times. If the associations move with the times as well, they’ll do equally as well,” he claimed.

“We’re not going into competition with them. We’re not a trade association, we’re a certification body.”

His comments came during a wide ranging two-part interview for Mr Soot owner David’s popular Trade Entrepreneur podcast.

The first part covered how Bruce has grown HETAS from just one employee in 2006 to around 60 today.

In the second part, which is available below, David quizzed Bruce on a number of industry hot topics, including:

• Why the HETAS Approved Sweeps scheme was expanded to non-association sweeps
• Accusations over HETAS’s ‘not for profit’ status
• Its stance over rogue installers and customer complaints
• The emergence of the Federation of British Chimney Sweeps and the chimney sweeping NVQ 
• Whether sweeping in the UK will be regulated

David said: “This is an absolute must-listen interview for anyone in the solid fuel industry.

“It was an important opportunity to put a number of issues to the head of HETAS, and we didn’t duck them. 

“It was probably the biggest, and most revealing, interview Bruce has ever done. I know it will prompt a lot of reaction and comment.

“The first interview has become our most popular Trade Entrepreneur podcast ever in terms of downloads. I’m confident the second part will be well in excess of that.”