A RED-FACED builder has received a warning from housing bosses - for his poor aim when going to the toilet!

The un-named worker is one of the first to fall foul of housing company Twin Valley Homes' customer charter.

It requires builders to ditch habits traditionally associated with the trade -- such as wolf-whistling, playing radios, swearing and not cleaning up properly -- and put the customer first.

Twin Valley, which took over the running of Blackburn with Darwen Council's 10,000 council homes in April 2001, has urged tenants to complain if they feel offended by a builder's actions.

But Phil Richards, chief executive of Twin Valley Homes, admitted they weren't expecting one of the first complaints to be about a builder's toilet habits.

The builder was employed by one of three firms carrying out repairs and improvements on an estate in Blackburn within the last few weeks.

Mr Richards said: "We received a complaint from one woman who basically was frustrated that when one of the builders working in her home went to the toilet, his aim wasn't as good as it should have been.

"We weren't expecting that sort of complaint, but it was a legitimate one which was causing upset.

"We had to think how we would feel if we had a builder in and he was peeing all over our floor.

"The builder, in fairness, was very embarrassed and we are pretty confident it is a situation which won't arise again. It was just a case of letting him know about the problem, explaining why it was causing offence and asking to make sure it didn't happen again."

Under the charter scheme, firms receive notification of a complaint, and the staff responsible for the problem are warned not to let it happen again.

If a problem re-occurs firms run the risk of not having contracts renewed.

Twin Valley Homes is spending more than £100million over five years repairing and improving its housing stock, as well as knocking unpopular houses together.

And Mr Richards said: "The important thing is that our tenants are at the foremost of everything we do.

"Improvements can mean major upheaval and we want things to move as smoothly as possible.

"Obviously, some disruption is inevitable and when we get complaints, we have to look at them and see if some things can be improved.

"A bit of dust here and there or disruption can't be helped, but in this case, something could be done."

A spokesman for the National Federation of Builders, which originally backed the charter, said today: "As this demonstrates, correctly implemented and enforced codes of conduct can greatly contribute to forming good relationships between builders and their customers.

"The NFB is keen to raise standards across the industry and this approach could serve as a beacon to other housing associations in the UK."