How Much Does an Electrician Cost in the UK? 2026 Rates by Job

Ring three electricians about the same dead socket and you can be quoted £90, £160 and £320. None is necessarily trying it on. UK electrical pricing is assembled from moving parts — minimum charge, travel, materials, testing time and certification — and the trade rarely itemises which is inflating your number.

Here is what the work costs in 2026, job by job, plus the part most price guides skip: where the line sits between what a competent DIYer may legally do and what must be certified by someone registered.

Almost nobody charges from the moment they arrive. Most domestic sparks work to a minimum charge covering the first hour plus travel, then bill in half-hour blocks — or quote a fixed price once they know what they are walking into. The day rate is where the value sits: with more than about four hours of work, bundling everything into one visit beats three separate call-outs.

Expect these rates in 2026, before materials and VAT:

• •Hourly rate, most of England, Wales and Scotland: £45–£60, with a one-hour minimum
• •London and the South East: £60–£90 per hour
• •Day rate (7–8 hours on site): £250–£400 outside London, £350–£550 inside the M25
• •Call-out / first-hour charge: £60–£120, usually including 30–60 minutes of labour
• •Evenings, weekends and bank holidays: 1.5× to 2× the standard rate
• •Genuine out-of-hours emergency: £120–£200 for the first hour
• •VAT: a sole trader under the £90,000 threshold will not add it; an established firm adds 20%

Figures below are labour, materials on top unless stated. Small jobs cluster around the minimum charge, which is why one socket and three on the same visit cost nearly the same. Rule out the free fixes first — a tripping breaker has a short list of likely causes you can check yourself, and a socket with no power deserves the dead socket sequence before you book the van.

• •Replace a socket, switch or ceiling rose like for like: £60–£90 (a minimum-charge job)
• •Add a double socket to an existing circuit: £110–£180 — see our detailed socket installation costs
• •Fit an IP66 outdoor socket on an RCD-protected circuit: £150–£250
• •Six LED downlights in a plasterboard ceiling: £250–£400
• •Replace a consumer unit with a 10-way RCBO board: £450–£850 including the board
• •New dedicated circuit for a cooker or electric shower: £250–£450
• •Install an electric shower, unit not included: £300–£550
• •7kW EV charge point, straightforward install: £800–£1,200 — the variables are covered in our home EV charger guide
• •EICR (Electrical Installation Condition Report), three-bed house: £150–£280; £250–£400 for large or pre-1970 properties
• •Fault-finding on an intermittent trip: £70–£150 for the first hour, and honest electricians will not promise a fix within it

Rewires are priced per point — every socket, switch and light counts as one — and once you divide the total, most UK quotes land at £90–£140 per point including cable and accessories. A three-bed semi typically has 50–65 points.

Roughly 70–75% of the bill is labour. Materials cost less than people assume: a 100m coil of 2.5mm twin and earth is £75–£120, an 18th Edition consumer unit £90–£250. You are paying for the week of lifting floorboards and chasing walls, plus a half-day of testing and certification.

• •Two-bed flat, full rewire: £3,000–£4,500, 4–6 working days
• •Three-bed semi: £4,500–£7,000, 5–8 working days
• •Four or five-bed Victorian house with lath and plaster: £7,500–£12,000, 10–15 working days
• •Partial rewire (upstairs only, or lighting circuits): £1,800–£3,500
• •Making good — plastering and redecorating after the chasing — is almost never included: budget £700–£1,800
• •Main protective bonding upgrade to gas and water: £150–£300

This boundary saves or costs real money. In England, Part P of the Building Regulations makes only a short list of work notifiable; anything off that list you may do yourself, provided it complies with BS 7671. Wales kept the older rules, so kitchens and outdoor work stay notifiable there. Scotland has no Part P but Building Standards and BS 7671 still apply, and Northern Ireland has its own equivalent.

A competent DIYer with a decent socket tester can reasonably tackle:

• •Replacing a damaged socket, switch or ceiling rose like for like, outside a bathroom
• •Swapping a light fitting or pendant, again outside a bathroom
• •Adding a socket or a light to an existing circuit in a bedroom, hall, living room or (in England only) a kitchen
• •Fitting an outdoor socket in England off an existing circuit that already has RCD protection

Everything below is notifiable, meaning an electrician registered with NICEIC, NAPIT, STROMA or SELECT in Scotland, who self-certifies free. Notifying building control yourself costs £250–£450 and buys an inspection you will likely fail on testing alone.

The honest reason to stop is verification, not paperwork. Dead testing for continuity and insulation resistance, and live testing for earth fault loop impedance and RCD trip times, needs a calibrated multifunction tester costing £600–£1,200. Without those readings nobody knows the circuit is safe. If you are adding a shower, cooker and EV charger to one supply, calculate your total electrical load first.

• •Any new circuit: cooker, electric shower, EV charge point, garage or garden supply
• •Replacing or relocating the consumer unit
• •Any addition or alteration inside a room containing a bath or shower
• •Anything touching the meter tails, service head or the cut-out fuse — that seal belongs to your network operator and breaking it is an offence; ring your supplier
• •Call someone the same day for: a burning smell, browning around a faceplate, a warm socket, a circuit that trips the instant you reset it, rubber or lead-sheathed cable, or a wooden fuse board

Get three written quotes, each itemising labour, materials and certification separately. Check the registration number on the scheme's own online register rather than trusting the logo on the van — cloned numbers are common. Ask which certificate you get: an Electrical Installation Certificate for new circuits and consumer units, or a Minor Works Certificate for alterations. No certificate, no payment.

Gaps between honest quotes come down to access. Chasing solid brick doubles first-fix time against plasterboard stud; no loft hatch or a screwed-down chipboard floor adds a day. Cash-only, no written quote and "nobody notifies that any more" are the reliable warning signs. Other trades price the same way — our UK plumber rates guide uses an identical structure.

Do I need an EICR? Landlords in England, Wales and Scotland must hold one no more than five years old and give tenants a copy. Owner-occupiers should get one every ten years, or on purchase — if a survey flagged the wiring, that £200 report tells you whether you face an £800 consumer unit swap or a £6,000 rewire.

What if extra faults turn up mid-job? Agree in writing beforehand that any additional work over a set threshold — £150 is sensible — is quoted and approved before it is carried out. That one sentence prevents the most common domestic electrical billing dispute there is.