About Community Trades
No vulnerable person should have to live in an unsafe home because they cannot afford a tradesperson.
Community Trades exists to help vulnerable people remain safe and independent at home — by connecting trusted referral organisations with skilled volunteer trades and donated materials.
We are not a charity that fundraises and redistributes money. We are not a helpline. We are not a government scheme. We are something simpler and more direct than any of those things.
We are an operating system that coordinates kindness.
Why this exists
Across the UK, thousands of elderly, disabled, and vulnerable people live in homes with unsafe steps, broken handrails, rotten decking, dripping taps, and overgrown gardens that have become hazards. These are not luxuries. They are the difference between someone staying safely in their own home or ending up in hospital or care.
Organisations like Age UK, hospices, Macmillan nurses, social workers and district nurses see this every single day. They know what's needed. But the people they support either can't afford a tradesperson, don't know who to trust, or simply don't have anyone to help them arrange it.
Meanwhile, across every county in Britain, skilled tradespeople and companies occasionally have spare time — a cancelled job, a rainy afternoon, a quiet January — and no easy way to direct that time toward something that matters.
How we're different
Only trusted organisations can refer
We don't accept public applications. Only approved organisations — ones that already have a trusted relationship with the person — can submit a referral. This keeps quality high and protects dignity.
Volunteers are verified
Every tradesperson confirms they hold valid public liability insurance. We check it. We keep it simple, but we don't skip it.
No personal details go public
Jobs on our volunteer board show only a trade description and county. Full address is shared only with the volunteer who claims the job, through the referral organisation.
No bureaucracy
Think about how someone normally has a tradesman come to their house. You call someone, they come, they fix it. We're roughly that simple — we just match the right person with the right job.
Where we're headed
We're starting in Surrey. Small, focused, prove-it-first. Every county in the UK eventually needs its own volunteer network of trades. Community Trades is the platform that makes that possible — county by county, community by community.
Every completed job becomes a story. Those stories recruit more volunteers, more companies, more referrers, more suppliers. The network grows itself.