Cowboy builders and your money: what the UK government's 2026 crackdown means for homeowners

On 28 August 2026, the UK government announced a nationwide crackdown on cowboy builders, part of a series of "everyday fixes" designed to ease the cost of living and stop households being ripped off during home renovations. For anyone who has handed over a deposit and then lain awake wondering whether the work would ever get finished, it is a significant moment, because for once the fix is not only about naming bad builders after the damage is done. It is about protecting your money while the work is happening, and that is the exact principle Renno was built on.

What the UK government announced about cowboy builders

The announcement has two parts, both aimed at protecting homeowners. The first is a trusted-trader register. From September, a government-supported scheme called the Approved Code will let businesses sign up to show they meet higher standards on customer service, transparency and dispute resolution, giving homeowners a more credible way to check a trader before they hire. Announcing the reforms, the Prime Minister, Andy Burnham, did not mince words.

The staged-payment fix the government is recommending, and how Renno delivers it

The second part is the one that really changes things. The government is introducing a new system to protect people's money during building projects, with payments linked directly to key project milestones, so that instead of paying a large sum up front and hoping for the best, homeowners have their money held securely and released to the builder bit by bit as each stage is done. This is a clear, official endorsement of the staged-payment model, and it is precisely what Renno already does. When the Prime Minister talks about money held safely and released bit by bit as the work gets done, he is describing Renno. We have been building this for UK renovations from the start, and we are rolling it out through the places builders already are. Our recent partnerships with Cost Estimator (read about the partnership) and Grafters are how we are bringing protected, milestone-based payments to builder communities across the UK, so the people who do the work help shape how it gets paid.

Why the government is cracking down on cowboy builders now

The scale of the problem is why this reached the top of the agenda. According to the government, more than one in four UK adults who carried out home improvements in the past eighteen months experienced problems, from projects abandoned halfway through, to elderly people pressured into overpaying for shoddy work, to builders vanishing with the deposit and little or no work done. More than a third of those affected faced extra costs, losing an average of £750, and across 2024 the government estimates people lost more than £10.3 billion on home and garden maintenance through losses, overpricing and unfair practices.

Our own research points to exactly the same reality. Renno's 2026 UK homeowner survey found that 65.6% of homeowners went over their original renovation budget, and our survey of UK builders found that the overwhelming majority have hit a payment dispute, with the single biggest trigger being unforeseen costs and changes to the work rather than simple late payment. This is not just a homeowner problem or a builder problem. It is a structural gap in how renovation money moves, and it hurts good builders and homeowners alike.

What supporters of the crackdown are saying

Beyond the Prime Minister, the government framed the reforms as protecting both homeowners and honest tradespeople. The Business Secretary, Jonathan Reynolds, set out the aim plainly.

Consumer bodies have broadly welcomed the move. Citizens Advice said the action paves the way for much-needed changes in sectors that are infamous for rogue behaviour, while Which? called it a really positive step, adding that the wider consumer-protection system still urgently needs a major overhaul to make it fit for the digital age.

What critics of the crackdown are saying

The announcement has not been universally praised, and the criticism points straight at a weakness homeowners should understand. From the opposition benches, the Conservative shadow business secretary Andrew Griffith argued the plan risks piling more paperwork onto the majority of businesses who already do the right thing, and said the government should instead strengthen enforcement and toughen sentences for fraudsters.

The Liberal Democrats went further. Their business spokesperson Sarah Olney branded the announcement half-baked and warned that a voluntary code for tradespeople completely misses the mark, because rogue operators will not voluntarily sign up. The building industry's own body echoes the concern: the Federation of Master Builders has argued for years that voluntary schemes alone are not fixing the market and has called for mandatory licensing, warning that verifying who a builder is does not verify what they are competent to do.

Why a trusted-trader register alone won't protect your money

Put the criticism together and one theme emerges. A register only protects you if the bad actor chooses to join it, and by definition the worst operators will not. That is the honest limit of any voluntary trusted-trader scheme, however well intentioned. It is exactly why the staged-payment half of the announcement is the more powerful idea, and it is exactly the problem Renno already solves.

With Renno, protection does not depend on the builder being honest, being on a list, or behaving well. It protects the money directly. Your funds are held in a secure, regulated account and released stage by stage, only once each part of the work is done and you are happy with it. So it does not matter whether the builder turns out to be brilliant or a chancer, because they can never walk off with a budget they were never handed in the first place. A register tells you who to trust. Renno means you do not have to gamble on trust at all, because the structure protects both sides no matter what. That is the difference between hoping a job goes well and knowing your money is safe if it does not.

How Renno protects your renovation from cowboy builders

Renno was built around the precise principle the government is now recommending to the whole country, and thousands of the UK's best builders are already using it to get ahead. Before any work begins, you and your builder set the scope and break the job into clear, priced stages. You fund a stage into a secure, regulated account, so the money is set aside and visible rather than sitting in someone else's bank. Your builder does the work and submits it, with photos, for your review. You check it, and only when you are happy is that stage's payment released.

The result is that the single most dangerous moment in a renovation, where a large sum leaves your hands before the work exists to justify it, simply never happens. Homeowners are never left having paid the bulk of the budget for a fraction of the job. And builders get something just as valuable: certainty. The money is confirmed and set aside before they lift a tool, and it lands the moment each stage is signed off, so there is nothing to chase and no floating jobs out of their own pocket. That is why the best builders are choosing Renno now, ahead of any register or scheme. It wins them work, it takes the awkward money conversation off the table, and it lets their craftsmanship do the selling.

Building this with the UK builder communities already getting ahead

Protecting homeowners only works if good builders actually want to use the model, which is why we are building Renno alongside the communities where UK builders already meet, learn and price their work. We have partnered with Cost Estimator, the tool many UK builders use to price a job accurately, so that how a job gets costed and how it gets paid finally join up. And we are working with Grafters, one of the communities where UK tradespeople gather and share the realities of the job, so that protected payments are shaped by the people who actually use them. When the places builders already trust get behind staged payments, homeowners get better builders and stronger protection at the same time.

What builders and homeowners can do right now

You do not need to wait for a register or a scheme to protect yourself, because the protection the government is describing already exists and you can use it today. If you are a homeowner, set the scope in writing, break the job into stages, and never let your money move faster than the work is proven. If you are a builder, get your jobs onto a footing where you are paid promptly and fairly at every stage, and turn that certainty into a reason clients choose you. Both sides get there the same way. Renno holds the money securely and releases it as the work gets done, so a renovation stays a renovation and never becomes the kind of story that made the news.

Related guides

• The safest way to pay a builder
• How to spot a cowboy builder: the red flags to watch for
• How much deposit should you pay a contractor?

This article is general information about the UK government's August 2026 announcement and how protected payments work. It is not legal or financial advice.