The government has unveiled plans to tackle the cowboy builder crackdown UK consumers have long demanded, announcing a new database of vetted traders and a protected payment system designed to stop families losing money to rogue tradespeople. The scheme is set to launch next month.
Home renovations are one of the biggest sources of consumer complaints handled by Citizens Advice. The government says more than a quarter of people who carried out home improvements in the past 18 months encountered problems, with builders disappearing after receiving upfront payments among the most common complaints.
A survey carried out for the Competition and Markets Authority estimated that customers lost more than £10 billion in 2024 on home and garden maintenance services, through losses, overpriced costs or unfair practices by traders.
How the cowboy builder crackdown UK scheme will work
Traders joining the new scheme will need to demonstrate certain standards of customer service, transparency and dispute resolution. Crucially, customers’ money will be held in a protected account and released in stages only after specific milestones in a project are completed. That mechanism is intended to prevent the disappearing-act problem, where a tradesperson collects payment upfront and never returns to finish the job.
Prime Minister Andy Burnham said unscrupulous tradespeople ‘leave families with months of stress’ as well as unfinished work, adding that rogue operators gave their ‘decent, hardworking’ counterparts a bad name. The government, he said, would be ‘putting the cowboys out of business’.
Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds said that while home improvements can be stressful, ‘we’re taking action to protect consumers, support reputable traders and make sure people can spend their money with greater confidence and security’.
Industry and consumer groups divided on whether the scheme goes far enough
Not everyone is convinced the new measures will make a meaningful difference. The National Federation of Builders (NFB) pointed out that schemes to find trustworthy builders already exist. Adas Rico Wojtulewicz-Richmond, the NFB’s director of policy, told BBC Breakfast: ‘Is this scheme going to stop bad actors operating and ripping people off? I don’t think it will.’ He argued that a better approach would be a project ‘passport’ recording all work done, which he said ‘protects consumers because you can find out which companies are doing a poor job, and it brings up the industry standards’.
The Chartered Trading Standards Institute (CTSI) took a more measured position, saying the scheme would clamp down on rogue traders ‘who take the money and run’, but calling on the government to go further. John Herriman, CTSI’s chief executive, said government funding programmes like the Warm Homes Plan could create opportunities for fraudulent traders, and urged ministers to introduce a mandatory licence for tradespeople working in home repair and maintenance. He said this ‘would make it simpler and cheaper for enforcement agencies, including Trading Standards, to prosecute fraudulent tradespeople’.
That concern carries particular weight given the history of botched work carried out through government-backed insulation schemes. BBC News has previously reported that major defects have been found in over 30,000 houses linked to such programmes since 2022. Government home improvement grants remain in active use: according to Remodelling Centre, the Great British Insulation Scheme can provide fully funded insulation worth between £1,000 and £5,000 or more, depending on a property’s insulation needs and energy performance certificate rating, while the Boiler Upgrade Scheme offers £5,000 towards the cost of a biomass boiler in rural areas without a gas grid. Both programmes involve contractors working inside people’s homes, which is precisely the environment the CTSI warns could be exploited.
Opposition voices were sceptical from a different angle. Shadow business secretary Andrew Griffith said the announcement risks ‘the unintended consequence of piling more paperwork onto the majority of businesses who already do the right thing’, adding that tougher law enforcement and stronger sentences for fraudulent traders would be more effective. Liberal Democrat business spokesperson Sarah Olney said the scheme ‘completely misses the mark’ because ‘rogue operators won’t voluntarily sign up, they will simply keep exploiting families in the shadows’.
Alongside the trader measures, the government announced plans to regulate private bailiffs in England and Wales, to protect people in debt from what it described as ‘intimidating behaviour, unfair treatment or being pushed into excessive repayment arrangements’. People facing enforcement action will gain access to an independent complaints process, and private bailiffs will be held to professional standards. The government also said it would examine how organisations such as Trading Standards work with other regulators, so consumers are not ‘passed from pillar to post’. A Freedom of Information request by Which? last year revealed that understaffing in trading standards teams was already allowing more scams and dangerous products to reach consumers.
