If a number has no source, it does not ship.
That is the whole editorial policy, and everything below is how it is enforced.
The organisation, not a byline
This report carries no personal bylines. The organisation stands behind every published figure, and every figure traces to a named, dated source.
Who publishes it
The Day Rate Report is published by the Rate Sorted team.
Rate Sorted runs the free rate calculator for tradespeople, which lives on its own site away from this data.
The named public sources
- ONS earnings data (ASHE April 2025)
- UK House Price Index (April 2026)
- National trade cost guides
Last updated 30 September 2026
The photographs
- Every photograph on this site is generated illustration. None of them is a photograph of a real job, a real tradesperson or a real town, and none is evidence of anything.
- They are there to give a data page a face. The figures beside them are the work, and those come from the named registers above.
The method, in four steps
The method in four steps
- 01The benchmarkEach benchmark is checked against the day rates UK trade price guides publish, and every trade page shows that published spread with the date it was checked.One method, every trade. We publish the benchmark and the spread beside it, and we do not claim the benchmark was derived from those guides.One trade has no comparable guide figure published anywhere. Those pages state that plainly instead of showing a spread.
- 02The cross checksEvery benchmark is checked against ONS ASHE 2025 earnings and Hudson Contract real payment data.The cross checks sit beside the base, never inside it.
- 03The town figuresONS regional pay and local house price data spread each benchmark across the modelled towns.Modelled estimates are labelled as estimates, never as quotes.
- 04The datesEvery source carries the date it was checked.When a source updates, the page and its CSV update together.
Data only, by design
This site publishes day rate data and nothing else. No calculators, no quote forms, no products.
- Everything here is free to cite under CC BY 4.0, and a credit with a link back to thedayrate.co.uk is all we ask in return.
- Every trade page and every town page carries a CSV of the table behind it.
- Modelled figures are labelled as modelled in both places, on the page and again in the download, so a figure this site worked out can never be mistaken for one a named guide published.
- Nothing ships without a source and a date.
Corrections and updates
Every figure here carries the date it was sourced, so a correction is a normal event rather than an embarrassment.
- Every named source behind a benchmark is re-read on a quarterly cycle, last checked 30 September 2026 and next due 30 December 2026.
- A correction needs the same thing a figure needs, which is a named source with a date and a page anybody can open.
- An accepted correction moves the figure in the register behind the site, so every page, CSV and citation that reads it moves in the same build.
- The reading that was replaced is kept, dated, rather than overwritten, because a figure that changed is the only way to show what changed.
- Corrections go to press@thedayrate.co.uk, and a figure you want checked before you publish is welcome at the same address.
Contact
Questions about a figure, a source or a dataset are welcome. Journalists on a deadline get priority.
The same address takes data protection requests, which are covered in the privacy notice.
Your next step
This report gives the benchmark, and the next step for a tradesperson is a rate built from their own costs.
That is what the Rate Sorted calculator is for.