National rank
21 of 30
20 towns model higher than this one.
£182 in Leicester, and Coventry lands on the same figure.
East Midlands pay of £703.80 a week on £235,000 housing gets there.
Coventry gets there on West Midlands pay of £730.40 and £218,000.
Modelled from two published statistics, East Midlands median weekly pay of £703.80 and Leicester housing at £235,000, both sourced 5 July 2026 and cross checked further down this page.
How Leicester compares with the other 29
30 towns, one axis. Leicester is the marked tick, at £182 on a rail running from £160 in Sunderland up to £235 in Guildford, which puts it £18 below the drawn £200 benchmark.
Leicester £182
£200 benchmark
Leicester sits £53 under Guildford at the top and £22 over Sunderland at the bottom.
One other town shares that mark: Coventry, also £182.
Leicester's marker is the decorator rate.
It is the trade the model anchors on, and the other 16 move with the same multiplier, from £127 for general labourer work to £254 for electrician work.
Regional rank
2 of 4
Against the 4 towns we model in the East Midlands.
Versus benchmark
£18 down
9.0 percent below the £200 national decorator benchmark.
What 17 trades charge in Leicester
17 trades, one town. A Leicester day runs from £127 for general labourer up to £254 for electrician, which is a £127 span on what is otherwise the same working day, priced through East Midlands earnings.
Every one of the 17 is the same 9 percent down on Leicester geography, because one multiplier built from the East Midlands pay and Leicester house prices moves all of them together.
| Trade | Day rate | Modelled range |
|---|---|---|
| Electrician£26 below the £280 benchmark on Leicester geography. | £254 | |
| Plumber£25 below the £270 benchmark on Leicester geography. | £245 | |
| Bricklayer£24 below the £260 benchmark on Leicester geography. | £236 | |
| Gas and Heating Engineer£24 below the £259 benchmark on Leicester geography. | £235 | |
| General Builder£23 below the £253 benchmark on Leicester geography. | £230 | |
| Carpenter and joiner£22 below the £240 benchmark on Leicester geography. | £218 | |
| Roofer£22 below the £239 benchmark on Leicester geography. | £217 | |
| Plasterer£21 below the £230 benchmark on Leicester geography. | £209 | |
| Tiler£21 below the £229 benchmark on Leicester geography. | £208 | |
| Drainage Engineer£21 below the £225 benchmark on Leicester geography. | £204 | |
| Decorative Plasterer£21 below the £225 benchmark on Leicester geography. | £204 | |
| GroundworkerModelled only£20 below the £213 benchmark on Leicester geography. | £193 | |
| Painter and decorator£18 below the £200 benchmark on Leicester geography. | £182 | |
| Handyman£17 below the £188 benchmark on Leicester geography. | £171 | |
| Cladding Installer£16 below the £175 benchmark on Leicester geography. | £159 | |
| Suspended Ceiling Installer£16 below the £175 benchmark on Leicester geography. | £159 | |
| General Labourer£13 below the £140 benchmark on Leicester geography. | £127 |
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 Leicester 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 Leicester 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 Leicester, so the next step is pricing one of your own jobs there.
The Rate Sorted calculator opens already set to Leicester, so your own costs go in and a Leicester rate you can quote with comes out.
How long the work takes in Leicester
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 Leicester rates can be multiplied out.
A decorating job in Leicester comes to £364 to £728, on the 21st dearest day rate of the 30 towns on this site.
decorating in Leicester
£364 to £728
A painter and decorator day in Leicester models at £182, 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 Leicester
£230 to £355
A plasterer day in Leicester models at £209, 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 Leicester
£520 to £666
A tiler day in Leicester models at £208, 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 Leicester 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 Leicester measurement.The same 3 jobs come to the same money in Coventry, which reaches £182 a decorator day on £218,000 housing and West Midlands pay of £730.40.
Why Leicester prices as it does
Leicester reaches £182 by a different route to Coventry.
£235,000
The average house price, against £291,000 across the UK.
£703.80
The East Midlands median weekly pay Leicester is modelled on, 8.2 percent below the UK median of £766.60.
0.81x
Property against the UK average, 19 percent below 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 Leicester 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 Leicester charged for a day of work; what they show is why Leicester lands where it does.
East Midlands WEEKLY PAY
£703.80
Leicester is modelled on the East Midlands median for full time work, according to ONS ASHE April 2025.It is 8.2 percent below the UK median of £766.60 a week, and Leicester models at £182 a decorator day on it.East Midlands ranks 10 of the 11 regions on the register, and Leicester is 2 of the 4 East Midlands towns we model on it.
Leicester HOUSE PRICES
£235,000
The Leicester average, data from the ONS local housing price pages, April 2026 provisional.That is 0.81 times the UK average of £291,000, per the UK House Price Index.18 of the 30 towns we cover have more expensive housing.
Leicester questions
The same answers the structured data on this page gives a search engine, word for word, and every figure in them is a Leicester figure printed above.
What is a typical day rate in Leicester?
A decorator day in Leicester models at £182.
That is number 21 of the 30 towns on this site.
Across the 17 trades a Leicester day runs from £127 for general labourer work up to £254 for electrician work, every one of them modelled on East Midlands earnings and Leicester house prices.
Which trade charges the most per day in Leicester?
Electrician, at £254 a day.
General Labourer work is the cheapest of the 17, at £127.
That leaves a £127 span for the same working day in the same town, and it happens because every trade carries its own national benchmark before any Leicester geography is applied to it.
Why do Leicester and Coventry have the same day rate?
Both model at £182 for a decorator day.
They arrive there from different places: Leicester on East Midlands weekly pay of £703.80 against an average house price of £235,000, Coventry on West Midlands pay of £730.40 against £218,000.
Housing is the wider of the two gaps, with Leicester at 0.81 times the UK average house price and Coventry at 0.75 times.
The earnings side of the model closes most of that gap back up, which is how both land on £182.
Is Leicester dearer than Derby?
Leicester is the dearer of the two: £182 in Leicester against £176 in Derby, a £6 gap on a decorator day.
Leicester and Derby both sit in the East Midlands.
Leicester ranks 2 of the 4 towns we model there.
Why are Leicester rates below the national benchmark?
Two published statistics move the Leicester figure: East Midlands median weekly pay of £703.80, 10 of the 11 regions on the register, and a local average house price of £235,000, 19 of the 30 towns.
Together they put Leicester £18 under the £200 national decorator benchmark.
That is 9.0 percent down.
Can I use these Leicester figures as a quote?
No. £182 is a modelled town figure, and the modelled range beside it, £137 to £237, is arithmetic on that figure rather than a measurement of Leicester jobs.
16 of the 17 Leicester 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 Leicester rows, £127 to £254. Each row carries its own provenance, so a modelled Leicester figure can never be read as a sourced one.
Download · CSVleicester.csvOne row per trade, with the rate, the modelled range and the published spread.
Cite this pageThe Day Rate Report, Leicester day rates, 30 September 2026, https://thedayrate.co.uk/day-rates/leicester/
Embed this figure
The Leicester 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/leicester/"><img src="https://thedayrate.co.uk/og/day-rates-leicester.png" alt="Day rates for 17 trades in Leicester, from The Day Rate Report" width="1200" height="630"></a>
The Leicester 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.