Trade Rates by UK City in 2026: Plumber, Electrician and Handyman Prices in 16 Big Cities (Checkatrade, MyBuilder, Jobbit Pro)

A plumber in Newcastle and a plumber in Battersea do the same job with the same tools, and one of them charges nearly double. Rate guides from Checkatrade, MyBuilder and the 2026 trade-pricing sites put a UK plumber at £45 to £75 an hour, an electrician at £50 to £85, a handyperson at about £30 and a general builder at £200 to £280 a day, then add 20 to 30% for London and take 10 to 15% off for Wales, Northern Ireland and the North East. Demand is not the problem: the Construction Industry Training Board estimates the industry needs about 41,200 extra workers every year between 2026 and 2030, and four in ten people in the trades are already over 45.

This guide sets out trade rates by UK city for 2026, all 16 big cities from London to Belfast, for the trades customers search for most: plumbers, electricians, handymen, builders, painters, plasterers, roofers and gas engineers. It explains what pushes a price up in each region, how to work out your own hourly and day rate rather than copying a neighbour's, and how to keep the diary full without paying a lead site for every enquiry.

How we built the rate table

1. National ranges first. Checkatrade's 2026 cost guides, MyBuilder's price guides and the 2026 rate sites (Trade Day Rates, Mend or End, Quotesmith and others) all publish national hourly and day-rate ranges. We took the overlap, not the extremes.

2. Regional premium second. The same guides quote London and the South East at 20 to 30% above national (plumbing labour up to 30 to 40%), the North West about 10% below, and Wales, Northern Ireland and the North East 10 to 15% below. Scotland sits close to the national figure, with a small premium in Edinburgh. Manchester, Birmingham and Bristol track within 10% of the national median.

3. Call-out fees and day rates noted separately. Most plumbers and electricians charge a call-out fee of £40 to £90 that covers travel and the first half hour or hour, and a day rate for six hours or more that is 15 to 25% cheaper than stacked hourly rates.

4. Labour only. Every figure excludes materials, VAT and parking. Emergency and out-of-hours work runs 1.5 to 2 times the daytime rate.

5. Rounded to £5. These are typical bands for a qualified, insured sole trader, not the cheapest advert on a marketplace and not a firm with three vans.

Trade rates in 16 UK cities in 2026

Two things stand out. First, the gap between the top and the bottom of the table is about the same as the gap between a quiet week and a full one, so filling the diary matters more than squeezing the rate. Second, London's premium mostly pays for London: the ULEZ charge on a non-compliant van, parking, congestion and two hours lost in traffic every day.

Rates by trade in 2026

Plumbers and heating engineers

The plumber hourly rate is £45 to £75 nationally, with a call-out fee of £50 to £80 and a day rate of £320 to £480 for longer jobs. A plumber in London charges £60 to £105 an hour and the day rate reaches £375 to £750. Gas Safe registered engineers charge more, with a typical gas-engineer day rate of about £345 nationally (£230 to £570), and boiler and heat-pump installs are quoted per job. The trap is the 20-minute washer change that becomes a £45 job: price the call-out, not the minutes. Next action: publish a call-out fee, an hourly rate and a day rate side by side so customers self-select.

Electricians

The electrician hourly rate is £50 to £85 nationally, £250 to £400 a day, and in London £450 to £825 a day against £300 to £500 across the Midlands and the North. Testing and certification, EV charger installs and consumer-unit changes are the growth work, and each has a certificate that justifies a fixed price. The trap is quoting hourly for jobs that customers compare as a fixed price online. Next action: build a fixed-price list for the ten jobs you do most and keep hourly for fault finding.

Builders, bricklayers and carpenters

General builders charge £200 to £280 a day nationally, £260 to £360 in London. Bricklayers sit around £250 a day, carpenters and joiners around £285 (£195 to £470), and both go higher on site-based contracts. Industry estimates put the shortfall of general builders in the tens of thousands, which is why day rates have held up even where housing starts have not. The trap is materials: a 10% markup on a £6,000 order is a week's labour, and many small builders forget to charge it. Next action: quote labour and materials as separate lines and state the markup.

Painters, plasterers and tilers

A painter and decorator's day rate is £250 to £350 nationally; plasterers average around £250 a day (£170 to £415) and tilers around £240 (£165 to £395). These trades are quoted per room or per square metre more than per hour, so the city premium shows up in the room price. The trap is underquoting prep work. Next action: price prep as its own line, because that is where the hours go.

Handypeople and odd jobs

The average handyman hourly rate is about £30, rising to £50 in London, with self-employed rates commonly £20 to £30. City averages from the 2026 guides range from £37 in London and £22 in Brighton down to £19 in Doncaster, and day rates average £188 nationally, £231 in London and £195 in Manchester. Almost everyone charges a minimum call-out of £40 to £60 that covers the first hour. The trap is single small jobs across town. Next action: sell half days and full days, and bundle a customer's list into one visit. The handyman jobs guide covers how to find that work.

Roofers and gas engineers

Roofers charge about £280 a day nationally (£190 to £460), more for scaffold-dependent work, and quote most jobs fixed. Gas engineers, as above, sit around £345 a day and add certification fees. Both are seasonal, and both are where emergency uplifts of 1.5 to 2 times apply. Next action: keep a winter and a summer price list, and say so on your profile.

What changes the price in each part of the country

London and Brighton

London carries the biggest premium in every trade, and most of it is cost: the ULEZ charge for a non-compliant van, parking at £4 to £8 an hour in central boroughs, congestion and tool theft insurance. Demand is deep in every borough, and customers expect a fixed price for common jobs. Brighton behaves like an outer London borough, with a 10 to 20% premium and a lot of period property that needs specialist work.

Manchester, Liverpool and the North West

Manchester tracks the national median with strong demand from a huge rental stock and new-build snagging, and handyperson day rates there, around £195, sit above most regional cities. Liverpool runs about 10% below national on labour but has a lower cost base, and refurbishment work in older terraces keeps builders and plasterers busy.

Leeds, Sheffield and Newcastle

Leeds and Sheffield are close to national rates with steady maintenance and landlord work, and Sheffield's hillside housing stock means roofing and damp work all year. Newcastle and the North East have the lowest labour rates in England, with the plumber median around £42 an hour, but also the lowest rent and overheads, so the margin per day is closer to Manchester's than the hourly rate suggests.

Birmingham, Coventry, Nottingham and Leicester

The Midlands cities sit at national rates, with Birmingham inside 10% of the national median and the surrounding towns a little lower. Retrofit, EV charger and heat pump work is growing fastest here because of the volume of 1930s to 1970s housing, which favours electricians and heating engineers with the right certifications.

Edinburgh, Glasgow, Cardiff and Belfast

Scotland sits close to national figures, with Edinburgh a touch higher because of tenement work and tight parking, and Glasgow around the median. Cardiff and Belfast run 10 to 15% under the national figure, and both have strong public-sector and landlord maintenance contracts that pay reliably. Belfast plumbing jobs price about 13% under the UK average in the 2026 city guides.

Bristol

Bristol carries a small premium, within 10% of national and higher in Clifton and the harbourside, with a large stock of Victorian housing, a busy loft and extension market and Clean Air Zone charges for older vans that work like London's ULEZ on a smaller scale.

How to set your own rate instead of copying the table

1. Add up the year's costs. Van, fuel, insurance, tools, certification, phone, software, accountant, clothing. For a one-person plumbing business that is often £12,000 to £20,000 a year.

2. Decide the wage you want. A skilled employed electrician earns £40,000 to £50,000 in most cities, more in London. Aim above it, because you carry the risk.

3. Count billable days honestly. Around 200 a year after quoting, travel, holidays, sickness and admin, and only 5 to 6 billable hours in each.

4. Divide. Costs plus wage plus 10 to 15% profit, divided by billable hours, is your hourly floor. Round up to the band in the table for your city; if you land above it, sell certification, speed and reliability, not price.

5. Set three numbers. A call-out fee that covers travel and the first hour, an hourly rate for the second hour on, and a day rate for six hours or more. Add a fixed-price list for your ten most common jobs.

The freelance day rates guide works through the same arithmetic for any self-employed trade.

How an AI agent helps a tradesperson earn more

ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Copilot, Manus and Meta's Muse can all draft a quote or a polite chasing message if you type everything in. Jobbit's agent goes further because it sits inside a marketplace with customers on the other side, and it does the admin end to end.

• Sends you briefed jobs, no lead fee. On Jobbit Pro customers and the agent send scoped, priced jobs to professionals in your trade and your city. The customer's payment is held in escrow before you start, and a fee applies only when a paid job completes. There is no subscription and no per-lead charge.

• Free agent credits from the first day. A new account gets a 300-credit sign-up bonus on top of 100 free credits every day, with no card, which covers quotes, invoices and follow-ups for a normal week.

• A website when your profile is complete. Finish your Jobbit Pro profile and you get a website for your services, hosted on Jobbit, with an enquiry form, so a customer searching for a plumber in Leeds finds you, your prices and your reviews.

• Quotes in minutes. Describe the job and the agent drafts a quote with labour, materials and your call-out fee, in your words, priced from your own rate card.

• Invoices and chasing. It writes the invoice, sends it, and follows up on day 7, 14 and 21, so late payers stop costing you evenings. The AI invoice guide shows the format.

• Scheduling and routing. Group jobs by area and day so the van does one loop, not three.

• Quarterly bookkeeping. A summary of income and expenses ready for Making Tax Digital, and a reminder before each deadline.

Where the jobs come from without paying for leads

Lead sites work for some trades and drain others. The trade lead sites comparison sets out what Checkatrade, MyBuilder, Rated People and Bark cost a tradesperson in 2026 and when each one pays off. Beside them, the reliable channels are repeat customers and referrals, landlords and letting agents who need a named tradesperson, local Facebook groups and Nextdoor, a Google Business Profile with photos and reviews, and a profile on a marketplace that does not charge per enquiry. The trade-specific guides cover the detail for plumbing, electrical work and painting and decorating.

Tax, registration and paperwork for the trades in 2026

• Self Assessment. Profits above the £1,000 trading allowance are taxed through Self Assessment, due by 31 January 2027 for the 2025 to 2026 tax year. The personal allowance is £12,570 and Class 4 National Insurance is 6% on profits between £12,570 and £50,270, then 2%.

• Making Tax Digital for Income Tax. From 6 April 2026, sole traders with qualifying income over £50,000 keep digital records and send quarterly updates, with the threshold dropping to £30,000 in April 2027 and £20,000 in April 2028; details on GOV.UK.

• CIS. If you subcontract to a contractor in construction, the Construction Industry Scheme deducts 20% from your labour payments if you are registered and 30% if you are not; register before the first job.

• VAT. Watch turnover against the VAT registration threshold (£90,000 at the time of writing), because materials count.

• Certification. Gas Safe for gas work, a competent-person scheme for notifiable electrical work, and public liability insurance of at least £1 million for most domestic customers, £5 million for many commercial ones.

• Scotland. Income tax bands differ north of the border; National Insurance and the rest are the same. The sole trader guide covers registering and when a limited company pays.

Your next 30 days

• Week 1: fix your numbers. Work through the five steps above, set a call-out fee, an hourly rate, a day rate and a ten-job fixed-price list for your city.

• Week 2: be findable. Create your Jobbit Pro profile, complete it to unlock your website, update your Google Business Profile with the same prices, and ask five recent customers for reviews.

• Week 3: fill the diary. Message ten landlords or letting agents with your price list, post the list in two local groups, and set the agent to follow up every enquiry within the hour.

• Week 4: measure. Billable hours, jobs won against quotes sent, and the cost of any lead site you still pay for. Drop what costs more than it earns.

Frequently asked questions

How much do tradespeople charge per hour in the UK in 2026?

Across the 2026 cost guides, a qualified plumber charges £45 to £75 an hour, an electrician £50 to £85, a handyperson about £30 and a general builder £200 to £280 a day. London adds 20 to 30% and Wales, Northern Ireland and the North East come in 10 to 15% lower.

What is a plumber's hourly rate in London?

£60 to £105 an hour in 2026, with a call-out fee of £50 to £80 and day rates of £375 to £750, roughly 1.5 times the national average. Most of the premium covers ULEZ, parking and time lost in traffic.

How much does a handyman charge per hour?

About £30 an hour on average, £35 to £50 in London and £19 to £28 in the cheapest cities, with a minimum call-out of £40 to £60. Day rates average £188 nationally and £231 in London.

Do trade rates really change by city?

Yes, by up to a third. London and the South East sit 20 to 30% above the national figure, Manchester, Birmingham and Bristol within 10% of it, the North West about 10% below, and Cardiff, Belfast and Newcastle 10 to 15% below. Overheads move in the same direction, so the margin per day is flatter than the hourly rate.

Should I charge a call-out fee?

Yes for plumbing, electrical and handyperson work. A £40 to £80 fee that covers travel and the first hour stops small jobs losing money and is what customers expect from the 2026 guides. Quote a day rate for anything over six hours.

How do I get more trade jobs without paying for leads?

Repeat customers, landlords and agents, local groups, a Google Business Profile with reviews, and a marketplace profile that sends jobs to you. Create a free Jobbit Pro profile: 300 free agent credits plus 100 a day, a website when your profile is complete, escrow on every job and no fee until a paid job completes.