The guides put an electrician between £220 and £500 a day, the highest ceiling of the six trades here. Checkatrade quotes around £400 as an eight hour day at £50 an hour, while its own trade table runs to £500. Part P registration and the testing that has to follow the work are what push the floor above the general trades.
Day rate
£220 to £500 a day
Hourly rate
£35 to £70 an hour
All figures are labour only, before materials. Whether VAT comes on top depends on whether the trade is VAT registered, so ask. The band is the widest span across the guides listed, not an average, and not a price anyone is committed to.
First and second fix wiring, consumer units, circuits, testing and the certificate at the end.
These are the published figures, copied as they stand rather than averaged into one number. Read down the column and you can see how far apart they sit.
Checkatrade, How much do tradespeople cost in the UK in 2026
Day: £300 to £500
Hour: £40 to £70
Last updated April 2026, checked 13 August 2026.
Checkatrade, Electrician hourly rates in the UK in 2026
Day: Around £400, quoted as eight hours at £50
Hour: Around £50, usually £45 to £60
The same page puts emergency work at around £90 an hour, within a range of £80 to £100.
Last updated May 2026, checked 13 August 2026.
MyBuilder, How much is a builder day rate in 2026
Day: £300 to £480
Hour: Not given in this table
No date on the page, 2026 in the title, checked 13 August 2026.
Superscript, What are tradesperson pay rates for 2026
Day: £220 to £350
Hour: £35 to £60
Published 16 February 2026, checked 13 August 2026.
These are three publishers, not three surveys of what people actually paid. Four ranges are identical in the Checkatrade and MyBuilder trade tables, and Superscript names Checkatrade as one of its own inputs. Where the guides agree, that agreement carries less weight than it looks like it does. The day rates overview sets out which ranges overlap and what each publisher says it used.
Superscript is the only guide that prints a London electrician rate next to its own national one, and the gap is smaller than expected: £250 to £350 a day in London against £220 to £350 nationally, so the top of the London band is the same number as the top of the national band. Its Manchester figure is £220 to £300 and Birmingham £210 to £290. Checkatrade adds no London day rate at all, only that a first hour on an urgent or very small job in London can reach around £100.
Source: Superscript, What are tradesperson pay rates for 2026 (Published 16 February 2026), checked 13 August 2026.
No published London uplift survives its own source. MyBuilder claims 20 to 40% above the national average and then prints a regional table on the same page showing London at £233 against Manchester at £196, a gap of about 19%. That is why this site publishes no single London percentage.
Source: MyBuilder, How much is a builder day rate in 2026 (No date on the page, 2026 in the title), checked 13 August 2026.
The full contradiction, with the regional table it rests on, is on the day rates overview. Regional differences across project types are set out in renovation costs by region.
On a day rate the risk that the job runs long sits with you; on a fixed price it sits with the trade. Ask for a fixed price wherever the scope can be written down, and keep the day rate for work where nobody can say what is behind the wall until it is open.
Anything with a defined end point prices better as a fixed job: a consumer unit swap, a rewire, the electrics for an extension. Checkatrade notes that electricians often prefer to quote those as a project, which also means an overrun stays their problem. Keep the day rate for fault finding, where nobody can say in advance how long the hunt takes.
Whichever model you agree, put it in writing before the first morning. The contract checklist lists what a written agreement needs to cover, why quotes differ explains the gaps that make two prices for the same job look nothing alike, and the day rates overview sets out when each model is the honest one.
A day rate is labour and nothing else. Materials, VAT, waste, scaffolding, the other trades on site, the minimum charge on a short visit and a contingency for what nobody priced all sit on top of it, and together they routinely add more than the labour band itself.
Each of those is priced out, with its source, on the day rates overview. The buffer has a page of its own in renovation contingency, and skips are priced in skip hire cost.
A day rate on its own tells you very little, because the number that matters is days multiplied by rate, plus everything above. Price the whole job first, then use the day rate to sense check the labour line inside it.
Most projects need several of these on site, each on their own rate. The day rates overview puts all six side by side.
Rate guides are republished without notice, so every figure here carries the date it was checked. Where a guide contradicts itself, this page shows both numbers rather than picking the flattering one. A written quote from a local trade beats all of it.
Cost guides written about one job print their own trade rates for that job, taken from the guide that priced it, so a figure on a project page here can sit inside the band above or a little outside it. The band on this page is the widest span across three general rate guides; a project page reads the guide that priced that project, which sets its own rates on its own date. Where two pages differ, each says which guide it read and on what date. The rates behind a single job are worked out in DIY savings and in load-bearing wall removal cost.
How this site handles prices and sources is set out in how we price.
Checkatrade quotes around £400 a day, arrived at as eight hours at £50, while its own trade table runs to £500 and Superscript starts at £220. Taken together the published range is £220 to £500 a day for labour only, the highest ceiling of the six trades on this site.
Checkatrade puts urgent call-outs at around £90 an hour, within a range of £80 to £100, against around £50 an hour for planned work. Emergency rates apply to evenings, weekends, bank holidays and overnight, and a separate call-out charge may sit on top of the hourly rate.
Most electricians apply a minimum charge or a higher first hour, which covers travel, arriving on site and basic fault finding. Checkatrade gives an example where a first hour in a major city reaches around £100 while later hours run at £45. If you have several small jobs, grouping them into one visit avoids paying that first hour twice.
Usually not. Checkatrade notes that electricians often prefer to quote larger work such as a rewire, a consumer unit replacement or the electrics for an extension as a fixed project price, which also means an overrun stays their problem rather than yours. Keep the day rate for fault finding, where nobody can say in advance how long the hunt takes.