More than one in five UK homeowners opted for gas and heating engineers as the nation’s most trustworthy tradespeople in the 2016 poll, released by HomeServe during Gas Safe Register’s Gas Safety Week.

Electricians rated second among more than 2,000 UK homeowners questioned in the OnePoll survey, followed by plumbers, painters and decorators, landscape gardeners and joiners.

Trustworthiness was the most important attribute expected of tradespeople by homeowners – with honesty, reliability, high quality workmanship and qualifications also ranking highly in the study.

“Before we let tradespeople have access to our homes, often for a number of hours, we obviously need to be completely confident we can trust them to do the job with competence and honesty.” said Greg Reed, HomeServe’s chief marketing officer. “Hundreds of our engineers are working in homes across the UK every day, so we know how important this is to our own customers when they turn to us for help.”

In total, 85% of homeowners who responded in the study deemed qualifications and accreditations to be essential ingredients for choosing their trusted tradespeople. All of HomeServe’s engineers are Gas Safe registered.

Jonathan Samuel, chief executive at Gas Safe Register, added: “Having any kind of work done can be stressful, and knowing that the person who is undertaking work is a suitably qualified professional like a Gas Safe registered engineer is a great help.”