Home Improvement Approved Code
Get approved by Trading Standards
A Government-backed consumer code, sponsored by the Furniture & Home Improvement Ombudsman and approved through the Chartered Trading Standards Institute. Using Trusted Payments helps you qualify.
The short answer
- The Home Improvement Approved Code is sponsored by the Furniture & Home Improvement Ombudsman and approved through the Chartered Trading Standards Institute.
- Core Criterion 11 requires that clients' money, deposits and pre-payments are protected — and using Trusted Payments helps you qualify.
- Code protection removes the reason customers reach for a credit card, cutting 1.5%–2.9% card fees on high-value jobs.
- The Department for Business and Trade has welcomed the scheme and supports its wider adoption.
- It is a criminal offence for a non-member business to display the Approved Code logo.
On this page
The part nobody tells you
Approval can pay for itself on one job
On a big installation your customer reaches for a credit card to get protection if you go under or the work is wrong. You absorb the card fee. As a Code member, they're covered by the scheme instead, so they don't need the card.
£10,000 installation paid by card
~£150
at typical UK processing of 1.5%–2.9%
The same job paid by Open Banking
Pennies
a flat initiation fee, commonly 20p–50p
On high-value work that saving is effectively the whole card fee, on every job, and Faster Payments settle in seconds rather than days.
Why customers are hesitating before they reach you
Homeowners used to settle the "can I trust this business" question two ways: reviews, and brand size. Both have stopped working. Around a third of reviews on open platforms are estimated to be fake, and five household names have collapsed in seven years, in several cases leaving customers out of pocket and mid-installation.
28%
of homeowners did repair work themselves because they didn't believe they could find a trustworthy trader
26%
delayed or abandoned the work altogether for the same reason
£38.5bn
private housing repair, maintenance and improvement market
That is demand leaving the market before anyone gets to quote for it. Citizens Advice also found that homeowners doing more checks before hiring were not protected from problems, which is why nothing the consumer does on their own closes this gap. It has to come from the business side.
What the Approved Code is
A consumer code is a set of standards a business agrees to work to, covering how you quote, how you contract, how you handle money and how you deal with complaints. The Approved Code Scheme was established by the Office of Fair Trading in 2001 and is now overseen by the Consumer Codes Approval Board, an independent not-for-profit body. Standards are set and approved through Trading Standards, and members are audited by the Ombudsman as code sponsor.
The Home Improvement Code is sponsored by the Furniture & Home Improvement Ombudsman, a not-for-profit body approved by Government under the ADR Regulations 2015, free to consumers and binding on member businesses.
It is a criminal offence for a business that isn't a member to claim membership or display the Approved Code logo. That's what makes the mark worth something: it can't be bought, copied or faked.
Why payment protection is the way in
Core Criterion 11 of the Approved Code Scheme requires that clients' money, deposits and pre-payments are protected. The Code sets this out further under Guarantees, Insurance and Payment Protection, Secure Payment Mechanisms, and ADR Payment Protection Alignment.
For most businesses that's the hardest requirement to evidence. Using Trusted Payments helps you meet it, stages agreed up front, signed off before money is released, and a final 10% that isn't paid until the job is properly finished.
How you get approved
- 1
Register free
No cost to sign up. If you're with TrustMark, Book a Builder or Buy with Confidence you're already vetted; otherwise checks take up to three working days.
- 2
Run your projects through the app
Payment stages agreed and signed off, with an insurance-backed warranty behind the work — meeting Core Criterion 11.
- 3
Apply for Code membership
With payment protection already in place, the hardest part of the application is done.
What it does for your business
You recover demand you never see
A quarter of homeowners are deferring work because they can't tell a good business from a bad one. Those people never appear in your pipeline to be lost.
You win the hesitant quote
The customer comparing three prices is looking for a reason to choose. Trading Standards approval is one they already understand.
Lower cost of taking payment
Code protection removes the reason customers reach for a credit card, which removes the card fee from every high-value job.
Compliance becomes a system
Clear terms, honest marketing, deposit protection and cancellation rights are the same areas the CMA now enforces under the DMCC Act.
Tenders and due diligence
One asset that answers the consumer's question, the buyer's question and the regulator's question at once.
Being early is worth more
Today it's a differentiator. If mandatory licensing arrives, it becomes a cost of entry — and the advantage goes to whoever was already audited and on the register.
Government is behind the scheme
“The Department welcomes the development of this scheme and supports its wider adoption.”
The Consumer Minister publicly backed the Approved Code Scheme in October 2025, citing 18 code sponsors, more than 40 codes, over 45,000 member businesses and £155bn of consumer spending protected.
Pressure is building from the other direction too. In July 2026 Citizens Advice called for the home repairs sector to be reviewed, asking for mandatory licensing, a single trader register and a clearer route to redress, a position backed by the Federation of Master Builders. The Approved Code already does all three, voluntarily.
Don't pay it all up front
Trusted Payments caps what you pay up front and releases the rest in stages, as each part of the job is finished and signed off.
How it worksCommon questions
- Is this the same as TrustMark?
- No. TrustMark is a government-endorsed quality scheme; this is a CTSI-approved consumer code with binding independent redress. You can hold both.
- Who runs the Code?
- The Furniture & Home Improvement Ombudsman is the code sponsor and audits member businesses. The scheme is overseen by the Consumer Codes Approval Board.
- What does the Code require of me?
- Twenty-five areas covering pre-contract information, sales and marketing, installation and completion, payment protection, complaints handling and independent redress.
- Is the Ombudsman's decision binding?
- Determinations are binding on member businesses, and the service is free to consumers.
- Can I display the logo before I'm approved?
- No. It is a criminal offence for a non-member business to claim membership or display the Approved Code logo.
- Can I lose approval?
- The Code includes an audit and compliance framework and a Disciplinary and Sanctions Panel.
Where this information comes from
- Citizens Advice, 7 July 2026, Opinium survey of 5,000 UK adults
- Barbour ABI, UK Private Housing RMI Market 2025–2029
- CMA, Online consumer reviews
- Approved Code Scheme, Core Criterion 11, approvedcode.tradingstandards.uk
- CTSI, 23 October 2025
- Letter from Kate Dearden MP, 10 July 2026
Last reviewed 16 August 2026