National rank
3 of 30
2 towns model higher than this one.
Cambridge models £26 over the national decorator rate.
£226 a day, 3 of 30, and 1 of 2 in East of England.
Modelled from two published statistics, East of England median weekly pay of £766.60 and Cambridge housing at £462,000, both sourced 5 July 2026 and cross checked further down this page.
How Cambridge compares with the other 29
30 towns, one axis. Cambridge is the marked tick, at £226 on a rail running from £160 in Sunderland up to £235 in Guildford, which puts it £26 above the drawn £200 benchmark.
Cambridge £226
£200 benchmark
Cambridge sits £9 under Guildford at the top and £66 over Sunderland at the bottom.
Cambridge's marker is the decorator rate.
It is the trade the model anchors on, and the other 16 move with the same multiplier, from £158 for general labourer work to £316 for electrician work.
Regional rank
1 of 2
Against the 2 towns we model in the East of England.
Versus benchmark
£26 up
13.0 percent above the £200 national decorator benchmark.
What 17 trades charge in Cambridge
17 trades, one town. A Cambridge day runs from £158 for general labourer up to £316 for electrician, which is a £158 span on what is otherwise the same working day, priced through East of England earnings.
Every one of the 17 is the same 13 percent up on Cambridge geography, because one multiplier built from the East of England pay and Cambridge house prices moves all of them together.
| Trade | Day rate | Modelled range |
|---|---|---|
| Electrician£36 above the £280 benchmark on Cambridge geography. | £316 | |
| Plumber£35 above the £270 benchmark on Cambridge geography. | £305 | |
| Bricklayer£33 above the £260 benchmark on Cambridge geography. | £293 | |
| Gas and Heating Engineer£33 above the £259 benchmark on Cambridge geography. | £292 | |
| General Builder£33 above the £253 benchmark on Cambridge geography. | £286 | |
| Carpenter and joiner£31 above the £240 benchmark on Cambridge geography. | £271 | |
| Roofer£31 above the £239 benchmark on Cambridge geography. | £270 | |
| Plasterer£30 above the £230 benchmark on Cambridge geography. | £260 | |
| Tiler£29 above the £229 benchmark on Cambridge geography. | £258 | |
| Drainage Engineer£29 above the £225 benchmark on Cambridge geography. | £254 | |
| Decorative Plasterer£29 above the £225 benchmark on Cambridge geography. | £254 | |
| GroundworkerModelled only£27 above the £213 benchmark on Cambridge geography. | £240 | |
| Painter and decorator£26 above the £200 benchmark on Cambridge geography. | £226 | |
| Handyman£24 above the £188 benchmark on Cambridge geography. | £212 | |
| Cladding Installer£22 above the £175 benchmark on Cambridge geography. | £197 | |
| Suspended Ceiling Installer£22 above the £175 benchmark on Cambridge geography. | £197 | |
| General Labourer£18 above the £140 benchmark on Cambridge geography. | £158 |
Heads upEvery benchmark is a modelled estimate published beside the spread the price guides themselves publish, and is never the median of a directory.Each row above says what Cambridge does to that trade.The day rate ranges the price guides publish are national, so they sit on each trade's own page rather than being reprinted on all 30 town pages.Follow any Cambridge row to read them.
Scale every bar drawn on £110 to £440Bar the modelled range, the rate x 0.75 and x 1.30No spread 1 of the 17 rows, marked MODELLED ONLY, where no UK price guide publishes a comparable day rate
Your next step
You have what 17 trades charge in Cambridge, so the next step is pricing one of your own jobs there.
The Rate Sorted calculator opens already set to Cambridge, so your own costs go in and a Cambridge rate you can quote with comes out.
How long the work takes in Cambridge
A rate prices a day and a job takes several of them. This site publishes a length for 3 of the 17 trades above, so those 3 Cambridge rates can be multiplied out.
A decorating job in Cambridge comes to £452 to £904, on the 3rd dearest day rate of the 30 towns on this site.
decorating in Cambridge
£452 to £904
A painter and decorator day in Cambridge models at £226, and decorating a living room takes 2 to 4 days.Source: Robin Gofton, Decorator's Forum UK, job reports.How long does decorating take?
plastering in Cambridge
£286 to £442
A plasterer day in Cambridge models at £260, and skimming 35 square metres of wall and a 16 square metre ceiling takes 1.1 to 1.7 days.Source: Methvin plastering production rates, updated 1 August 2026, fast to slow.How long does plastering take?
tiling in Cambridge
£645 to £826
A tiler day in Cambridge models at £258, and fixing and grouting 20 square metres of bathroom wall takes 2.5 to 3.2 days.Source: Methvin tiling production rates, updated 1 August 2026, fast to slow.How long does tiling take?
Read the sumEach figure above is a Cambridge day rate multiplied by a job length, and Day rate or price per job? is where that sum is worked in full.It is our arithmetic rather than a price anybody quoted, and none of the 3 lengths is a Cambridge measurement.
Why Cambridge prices as it does
Cambridge prices where its earnings and its housing put it, which is close to the middle.
£462,000
The average house price, against £291,000 across the UK.
£766.60
The East of England median weekly pay Cambridge is modelled on, level with the UK median of £766.60.
1.59x
Property against the UK average, 59 percent above it.
ONS local housing prices, April 2026 provisional, UK House Price Index.
Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (ASHE) April 2025 regional medians.
Registers sourced 5 July 2026.
How Cambridge stands on the two cross checks
Both are published statistics. Neither sets a rate on this page, and neither is a survey of what anyone in Cambridge charged for a day of work; what they show is why Cambridge lands where it does.
East of England WEEKLY PAY
£766.60
Cambridge is modelled on the East of England median for full time work, according to ONS ASHE April 2025.It is level with the UK median of £766.60 a week, and Cambridge models at £226 a decorator day on it.East of England ranks 4 of the 11 regions on the register, and Cambridge is 1 of the 2 East of England towns we model on it.
Cambridge HOUSE PRICES
£462,000
The Cambridge average, data from the ONS local housing price pages, April 2026 provisional.That is 1.59 times the UK average of £291,000, per the UK House Price Index.2 of the 30 towns we cover have more expensive housing.
Cambridge questions
The same answers the structured data on this page gives a search engine, word for word, and every figure in them is a Cambridge figure printed above.
What is a typical day rate in Cambridge?
A decorator day in Cambridge models at £226.
That is number 3 of the 30 towns on this site.
Across the 17 trades a Cambridge day runs from £158 for general labourer work up to £316 for electrician work, every one of them modelled on East of England earnings and Cambridge house prices.
Which trade charges the most per day in Cambridge?
Electrician, at £316 a day.
General Labourer work is the cheapest of the 17, at £158.
That leaves a £158 span for the same working day in the same town, and it happens because every trade carries its own national benchmark before any Cambridge geography is applied to it.
Is Cambridge dearer than Norwich?
Cambridge is the dearer of the two: £226 in Cambridge against £189 in Norwich, a £37 gap on a decorator day.
Cambridge and Norwich both sit in the East of England.
Cambridge ranks 1 of the 2 towns we model there.
Why are Cambridge rates above the national benchmark?
Two published statistics move the Cambridge figure: East of England median weekly pay of £766.60, 4 of the 11 regions on the register, and a local average house price of £462,000, 3 of the 30 towns.
Together they put Cambridge £26 over the £200 national decorator benchmark.
That is 13.0 percent up.
Can I use these Cambridge figures as a quote?
No. £226 is a modelled town figure, and the modelled range beside it, £170 to £294, is arithmetic on that figure rather than a measurement of Cambridge jobs.
16 of the 17 Cambridge rows carry a spread that UK price guides publish nationally, on the trade's own page, and 1 are modelled with none.
Take the data
17 Cambridge rows, £158 to £316. Each row carries its own provenance, so a modelled Cambridge figure can never be read as a sourced one.
Download · CSVcambridge.csvOne row per trade, with the rate, the modelled range and the published spread.
Cite this pageThe Day Rate Report, Cambridge day rates, 30 September 2026, https://thedayrate.co.uk/day-rates/cambridge/
Embed this figure
The Cambridge card carries the decorator rate and the date it was sourced, and the link goes to this page.
<a href="https://thedayrate.co.uk/day-rates/cambridge/"><img src="https://thedayrate.co.uk/og/day-rates-cambridge.png" alt="Day rates for 17 trades in Cambridge, from The Day Rate Report" width="1200" height="630"></a>
The Cambridge figures are free to use in an article, a fact check or a local story, and a credit with a link back is all we ask, under CC BY 4.0.