Handyman / gardener recommendation

One of my biggest frustrations of the last 15 years of living in London has been London tradesmen. Specifically the ability to find tradesmen that are reliable I.e will turn up to review and quote when they say they will, will quote without being chased AND turn up and do the job when they say they will without going missing half way through and leaving the job half done (and my home in chaos) before finally returning to finish off.

We are fair, undemanding and pay well - is it just bad luck? As someone who owns their own business it has driven me to distraction as I simply can't understand how these people stay in business with this approach!

Moan over - I am writing to recommend an excellent handyman come gardener come decorator. He is reliable, he is efficient, he is good, he is diligent and he is a pleasure to have around. I recommend him almost reluctantly as having finally found someone like him what if this recommendation makes him too busy to fit me in and I'm back at square one?!! But Steve deserves it. He is so good and we are so glad to have found him that we employ Steve on a permanent basis, half a day every other week. He does our garden which is now immaculate and handyman chores around the house when weather is bad or garden doesn't need it. He has a preference for regular work but is happy with ad hoc jobs too. We have children and Steve also provided a full clean CRB check at our request which he happily arranged, undertook etc before we employed him. He is based in Hornsey. Steve Martin 07725 112848.