The Government's Trusted Trader Scheme: Where It Actually Stands

On 28 August 2026 the government announced that "From September, a new government supported scheme will help people identify and hire trusted traders with confidence", with an Approved Code for businesses and "a new system to protect people's money during building projects with payments directly linked to key project milestones".

If you have been holding off on booking a roofer in the hope that something official was about to arrive, this article is the answer to a question nobody seems to have asked out loud: did it actually happen? We checked the primary sources on 3 October 2026. The short version is that one half shipped, the other half has not, and nothing about how you hire a roofer has changed yet.

At a Glance: Promised Against Delivered

What Was Announced, and What Has Actually Gone Live

The announcement itself is real and you can read it. The press release names two delivery bodies: Trusted Payments, a private company, for the payments side, and the Furniture and Home Improvement Ombudsman, working with the Chartered Trading Standards Institute, for the Approved Code. Those are two different things delivered by two different organisations, which is not obvious from the headline.

The payments app, and what it is not

Trusted Payments is an app that holds your money and releases it against agreed stages of work. CTSI publishes a consumer page about it, and that page is unusually candid. Asked whether Trusted Payments is a bank, it answers: "No. Trusted Payments is not a bank and is not authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority. It is a way of agreeing a project and releasing payment for each stage once you have signed that stage off. It holds the completion money as the consumers agent." Asked whether CTSI checks the traders using it, the same page answers: "No."

That matters. Money held by an agent is not the same as money held by an authorised, safeguarded firm, and we could not find any page, on CTSI's site or the company's own, explaining what would happen to homeowners' money if the company itself failed. CTSI describes the arrangement as a commercial partnership and says it "does not approve, vet or endorse the individual traders who use the app".

The costs and terms, as published: a fee of "between £25 and £85 depending on the project size", a 24 hour pause before each payment goes out, 45 days for you and the trader to resolve a dispute before an independent ombudsman makes a binding decision, and an insurance backed warranty. The warranty length is described three different ways across three sources, running from 12 months to 24 months after completion depending on project value, so treat "up to 24 months" as the honest summary and read the policy itself.

The Approved Code, still at stage one

This is the half that matters most if you were waiting for an official list of trusted traders, and it has not arrived.

CTSI publishes a register of prospective code sponsors. Checked on 3 October 2026, it lists the Furniture and Home Improvement Ombudsman under "Applications for Stage One Approval", described as "Working towards Stage One. The Code Sponsor has submitted their code of practice and are setting out how it will meet the criteria for approval." The same page says the sponsor application process "can last up to 2 years". CTSI's separate directory of codes that actually are approved contains around twenty one codes covering motor trade, new build warranties, removals, insulation and renewables, retirement communities and will writing. There is no home improvement, general building or roofing code in it.

There is a conflict here that you should know about. The code's own promotional website tells businesses the code "is approved by the Chartered Trading Standards Institute, and will be available for retailers to begin to demonstrate their commitment to quality from the end of September 2026". CTSI's own register says the sponsor is at Stage One. Those two statements cannot both describe the same thing, and we are reporting both rather than picking one. CTSI's own news item from 28 August 2026 used the softer wording, saying the ombudsman "plan to launch during the Autumn".

What Actually Protects You When You Hire a Roofer Today

Nothing above changes the practical question, so here is the position as it really is.

The checks that are worth something

For replacing a roof covering, the only government authorised route is the competent person scheme system. GOV.UK's register of current competent person schemes, updated on 17 September 2026, authorises CompetentRoofer, run by the National Federation of Roofing Contractors, and NAPIT, for "Replacement of roof coverings on pitched and flat roofs ... includes any necessary connected work (but not solar panel installation)". That lets the roofer self certify Building Regulations compliance instead of you paying for a building control application. Note that most homeowners assume NFRC is the only option here. It is not.

Beyond that, the schemes differ enormously in what they actually check. NFRC membership involves a non refundable application fee of "£250 plus VAT", a probity check, audited accounts, a desktop audit of insurance and health and safety policies, and an office and site inspection, with re-inspection every three years. TrustMark requires its registered businesses to have "an inspection no less than every three years by a qualified independent inspector" and audits its scheme providers annually. Buy With Confidence is run by local authority Trading Standards departments and involves "a series of stringent checks, including a visit by a qualified Trading Standards professional", plus criminal record checks for people working in homes. Which? Trusted Traders uses Trading Standards qualified assessors, DBS checks and customer reference calls.

Checkatrade is a different animal. It advertises "up to 12 checks", but only those "relevant to them", and its qualifications check is conditional: "if the tradesperson needs an accreditation, like Gas Safe or NICEIC ... then we check they've got them." Roofing has no mandatory licence, so for a roofer that particular check can do very little. That is a directory, not an accreditation, and it is worth knowing the difference.

One more thing worth saying plainly. RoofCERT, NFRC's accreditation for individual roofers, ended in 2023 and restarted in April 2025 with funding specifically to let up to 900 previously enrolled roofers finish. Its website does not disclose that history.

Paying so that you have somewhere to go

Citizens Advice published research in July 2026 that is uncomfortable reading for anyone who thinks a badge is the answer. Among UK adults responsible for arranging home repairs, 28% had an issue with their most recent project, and the research found no meaningful relationship between the checks people made before hiring and whether they went on to have a problem. What accreditation did predict was recourse: accredited traders were far more likely to give a written contract and a warranty, and disputes were resolved in 86% of cases where the trader belonged to an alternative dispute resolution scheme against 67% where they did not.

So choose for recourse, not for reassurance. Get it in writing, pay in stages against work you have seen, and use a payment method that gives you a route back. Section 75 of the Consumer Credit Act 1974 covers credit purchases where the cash price of the item is over £100 and not more than £30,000, which covers most roofing jobs. Citizens Advice found that 63% of people paid for their most recent home repair by cash, cheque or bank transfer and a further 20% by debit card, so around four in five gave that protection away before the work started.

Regional Differences

Which schemes you can actually use depends on where you live, and so does what they cost you.

The TrustMark line is the one to notice. An escrow arrangement that holds your money until the work is signed off has existed for some time at around £6 a side, which undercuts the newly announced payments app by a wide margin for the same basic idea.

Comparing roofers and want to check what each one is actually accredited for before you commit? Browse local firms and their listed accreditations at localroofer.directory, then verify anything a roofer claims directly with the scheme that issued it.

Why any of this matters is not abstract. Data from the National Fraud Intelligence Bureau, published in National Trading Standards' annual report for 2025 to 2026, recorded 6,736 crime reports for door to door sales and bogus tradespeople in 2024, an 8.3% rise on 2023, with £48.3 million of reported losses and an average loss per incident of £8,815, up 35.7% on the previous year. The report notes that "Builders were the most widely referenced profession, followed by roof and gutter workers", and that rogue traders in property maintenance, "especially roofing", dominated the 38 new cases it opened that year. In September 2026 alone, National Trading Standards reported a twelve person roofing fraud gang jailed for a combined 63 years over £1 million taken from 43 victims, and a separate case in which four people were sentenced after one victim paid £140,000 for work valued at £35,000.

Frequently Asked Questions

Has the government trusted trader scheme launched?

Partly, and not the part most people mean. The Trusted Payments app exists and works, though it reached the App Store on 8 July 2026, before the announcement that unveiled it. The Approved Code for home improvement, which is the part that would give you an official standard to look for, has not been approved. CTSI's register lists the sponsor under Stage One applications as at 3 October 2026, and the same page says that process can take up to two years. No new launch date has been published.

Is my money safe in the Trusted Payments app?

CTSI's own consumer page says Trusted Payments "is not a bank and is not authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority" and that it "holds the completion money as the consumers agent". Money held by an agent does not carry the protections that apply to an authorised, safeguarded firm, and we could not find any published explanation of what would happen to homeowners' funds if the company itself failed. If you use it, ask that question of the company in writing first.

Which roofing accreditation actually means something?

For replacing a roof covering, CompetentRoofer and NAPIT are the two government authorised competent person schemes, confirmed on GOV.UK's register updated on 17 September 2026, and they let a roofer self certify Building Regulations compliance. NFRC membership, TrustMark, Buy With Confidence and Which? Trusted Traders all involve a real inspection or assessment, with differing depth. A paid directory listing is not the same thing. Whatever a roofer claims, check it on the scheme's own website rather than taking the logo at face value.

What should I do instead of waiting for the scheme?

Hire for recourse. Get a written, itemised contract before anyone starts. Pay in stages tied to work you can see, not up front. Put what you can on a credit card so the Consumer Credit Act section 75 protection applies between £100 and £30,000. Prefer a trader who belongs to an ombudsman or dispute resolution scheme, because that is what the Citizens Advice research found actually changes outcomes. And get three quotes, so you can see which one is out of step.