Electrician Pricing Guide: What to Charge in 2026

Electrician rates have risen steadily over the past three years as demand for EV charger installations, solar PV work, and EICR testing has grown while the number of qualified electricians has remained relatively flat. In 2026, the market rate for a qualified electrician in the UK ranges from £45 to £90 per hour, with significant regional variation.

Region	Typical Hourly Rate
London	£70–£90/hr
South East	£60–£80/hr
South West	£55–£70/hr
Midlands	£50–£65/hr
North West	£48–£65/hr
North East	£45–£60/hr
Scotland	£50–£65/hr
Wales	£45–£60/hr

These are rates charged to customers — not what an employed electrician earns. Self-employed and company-owner rates need to cover all business costs: van, insurance, tools, certification fees, marketing, and tax. A rate that looks high to a customer is often modest once overhead is factored in.

Beyond hourly rates, most electricians price common jobs at a fixed or package rate. This gives customers certainty and rewards your efficiency — the faster you complete a job you've done hundreds of times, the more you earn per hour.

Typical prices for common jobs in 2026 (parts and labour, ex-VAT):

• Consumer unit replacement: £350–£650 (standard domestic, 16–20 way)
• EICR (Electrical Installation Condition Report): £120–£280 (by property size)
• EV charger installation: £400–£800 (7kW domestic, inc. unit)
• Additional double socket: £80–£150
• New lighting circuit (5 points): £200–£350
• Full rewire (3-bed semi): £3,000–£5,500
• Partial rewire (single room): £400–£900
• Emergency callout (first hour): £100–£200
• Smoke alarm installation (3 mains-linked): £150–£250
• Outdoor socket/circuit: £200–£350

These figures reflect market rates across the UK; London and South East prices are typically at the upper end or above these ranges. Don't use these as your prices — use them as benchmarks to check whether you're broadly in line with the market. Your actual price should be based on your cost calculation (see the section below).

The most important number in your pricing isn't what you'd like to earn per hour — it's your minimum viable rate: the hourly rate below which you're losing money. Many electricians never calculate this and simply copy what they think the market charges. This leads to years of undercharging.

Here's a simple calculation. Start with your annual income target — what you need to take home after tax. Add your business costs:

• Van (finance, fuel, insurance, maintenance): typically £5,000–£8,000/year
• Tools and equipment: £1,000–£3,000/year
• Insurance (public liability, employer's, van): £1,500–£2,500/year
• Certification and membership fees (NICEIC/NAPIT, etc.): £500–£800/year
• Accountancy: £500–£1,500/year
• Materials (if you include in price — typically 25–35% of job value)
• Marketing, software, phone: £500–£1,000/year

Total your costs, add your income target, and divide by your billable hours. A sole trader working 45 weeks a year at 7 billable hours per day has about 1,575 billable hours. If your total costs plus income target is £90,000, you need to charge at least £57/hour just to break even on that target — before VAT.

This calculation often surprises electricians who've been charging £50–£55/hour, thinking they're doing well. Add VAT registration (if you're VAT registered) and the picture becomes clearer about why you need to charge what the market will bear.

How you handle materials significantly affects your overall margin. There are three main approaches, each with trade-offs:

• Labour only — You charge for your time; the customer buys materials. Simpler admin, but you lose out on materials margin and often get called back to fit parts that are wrong or inferior. Most common on large commercial projects
• Labour + materials at cost — You buy the materials and pass them on at what you paid. Protects the customer from over-specification but leaves you covering the admin, storage, and risk of materials changes. Rarely worth it for domestic work
• Labour + materials with markup — The industry standard for domestic work. You apply a markup of typically 15–25% on materials. This covers your time buying materials, any wastage, and the small risk of price changes between quoting and delivery. Your materials margin should be visible in your accounts — it's a legitimate part of your revenue

A 20% materials markup is standard and defensible. If a customer queries it, explain that the markup covers your sourcing time, transport, and the warranty you're providing on the installation. Most customers who understand the business accept this readily.

Keep a tight control on materials costs. Small wastage, untracked materials, and price creep at the merchant add up. Review your materials spend against job revenue monthly — your materials as a percentage of total revenue should be broadly consistent. If it's creeping up, either your markup is being eroded or you're losing track of what's going on site.

VAT has a significant impact on pricing strategy. Once you're VAT registered (mandatory above £90,000 turnover; voluntary below), you charge 20% VAT on top of your prices. This creates an immediate price jump for domestic customers, who can't reclaim VAT.

If you're approaching the VAT threshold and are primarily doing domestic work, think carefully about how to handle the transition:

• Don't absorb VAT — adding 20% VAT to your prices means you need to raise them. Many electricians delay VAT registration to avoid this, but once you cross the threshold it's mandatory and backdating VAT is painful
• Raise prices gradually before registering — if you can see registration on the horizon, start lifting prices 6–12 months beforehand so the VAT registration itself doesn't cause a sharp jump
• Target more commercial work — commercial clients are VAT registered and can reclaim VAT, making the 20% addition largely irrelevant to them

Always quote prices with VAT status clearly stated — either "ex-VAT" or "inc. VAT." Customer confusion about whether quoted prices include VAT is a common source of disputes and damages trust.

Most electricians know they should raise their prices but delay doing it out of fear of losing work. The reality: if you're consistently turning away more work than you'd like to, or if you're fully booked weeks in advance, your prices are probably too low. The market is telling you that you're offering good value — take some of that value back as margin.

Practical approaches to raising prices:

• January is natural — A new year price increase is expected and accepted by most customers. "We've updated our prices for 2026" is a simple, non-confrontational explanation
• New customer rate vs existing — Raise prices for new enquiries first. Only raise prices for repeat customers once you've been charging new customers more for a few months and the conversion rate has held up
• Test with a subset of jobs — Try raising one common job type (e.g. EICRs) by 15% for a month. If conversion doesn't drop significantly, the market can bear it
• Raise by 10–15%, not 5% — Small incremental raises barely compensate for inflation. A 10–15% increase is meaningful and still easy to justify given cost increases

A word of caution: don't raise prices and simultaneously reduce quality or service. The customers who accept higher prices expect proportionally better service — communication, punctuality, and finish quality all need to match your rate.