Over forty years of electricalwork across the Borders,still run by the same family

The business was established in 1985 by William Purves as a small local electrical firm working out of Coldstream, on the Scottish side of the Tweed. Four decades later it trades as W P Purves Electrical Ltd (company number SC535061) and is owned and run by David and Alison Purves. All of the business operations are run locally from Coldstream and Duns. This means quotes get written, certificates get issued and calls get answered by people who know the job rather than a call centre which could be miles away.

Our fire, security and CCTV division is managed by Scott Ruthven, who oversees design, installation, commissioning and the maintenance contracts that keep those systems certified year to year.

Around three-quarters of what we do is commercial, industrial and agricultural. That includes factory and workshop three-phase installations, machinery connections, planned maintenance visits, shop and office fit-outs, and a large amount of farm work: steadings, grain stores, parlours, sheds and outbuildings where the environment is wet, dusty and unforgiving. The remaining quarter is domestic: rewires, consumer unit replacements, extensions, fault-finding and landlord EICRs.

Because we hold accreditation across four separate strands, most clients only need one contractor. We are SELECT (17074) and ECA (1683735) registered for electrical work, NSI approved (NSI-000082/FS/S) and BAFE registered (SP203) for fire detection and alarm systems, MCS certified through NAPIT (NEP-66400) and RECC registered for solar PV and battery storage, and OZEV approved for EV charging. One firm, one point of contact, one set of certificates.

We work across the Scottish Borders and north Northumberland: Coldstream, Duns, Kelso, Greenlaw, Chirnside, Jedburgh, Eyemouth, Berwick-upon-Tweed and Wooler among them. It is a rural patch with long distances between jobs, old stone buildings, exposed coastline and farm supplies that were never designed for today's loads. Over forty years of working in it is the difference between guessing and knowing.

Every one of our nine full-time electricians holds 18th Edition qualifications, and we are SMAS Worksafe (SSIP) approved for contractor health and safety, which is what most principal contractors and facilities managers want to see before you set foot on their site. We carry £10m employers' liability, £5m public liability, £5m product liability and £70,000 hired-in plant cover.