National rank
15 of 30
14 towns model higher than this one.
Southampton models £9 under the national decorator rate.
£191 a day, 15 of 30, and 7 of 7 in South East.
Modelled from two published statistics, South East median weekly pay of £775.80 and Southampton housing at £234,000, both sourced 5 July 2026 and cross checked further down this page.
How Southampton compares with the other 29
30 towns, one axis. Southampton is the marked tick, at £191 on a rail running from £160 in Sunderland up to £235 in Guildford, which puts it £9 below the drawn £200 benchmark.
Southampton £191
£200 benchmark
Southampton sits £44 under Guildford at the top and £31 over Sunderland at the bottom.
Southampton's marker is the decorator rate.
It is the trade the model anchors on, and the other 16 move with the same multiplier, from £134 for general labourer work to £268 for electrician work.
Regional rank
7 of 7
Against the 7 towns we model in the South East.
Versus benchmark
£9 down
4.5 percent below the £200 national decorator benchmark.
What 17 trades charge in Southampton
17 trades, one town. A Southampton day runs from £134 for general labourer up to £268 for electrician, which is a £134 span on what is otherwise the same working day, priced through South East earnings.
Every one of the 17 is the same 4 to 5 percent down on Southampton geography, because one multiplier built from the South East pay and Southampton house prices moves all of them together.
| Trade | Day rate | Modelled range |
|---|---|---|
| Electrician£12 below the £280 benchmark on Southampton geography. | £268 | |
| Plumber£12 below the £270 benchmark on Southampton geography. | £258 | |
| Bricklayer£11 below the £260 benchmark on Southampton geography. | £249 | |
| Gas and Heating Engineer£11 below the £259 benchmark on Southampton geography. | £248 | |
| General Builder£11 below the £253 benchmark on Southampton geography. | £242 | |
| Carpenter and joiner£11 below the £240 benchmark on Southampton geography. | £229 | |
| Roofer£11 below the £239 benchmark on Southampton geography. | £228 | |
| Plasterer£10 below the £230 benchmark on Southampton geography. | £220 | |
| Tiler£10 below the £229 benchmark on Southampton geography. | £219 | |
| Drainage Engineer£10 below the £225 benchmark on Southampton geography. | £215 | |
| Decorative Plasterer£10 below the £225 benchmark on Southampton geography. | £215 | |
| GroundworkerModelled only£9 below the £213 benchmark on Southampton geography. | £204 | |
| Painter and decorator£9 below the £200 benchmark on Southampton geography. | £191 | |
| Handyman£8 below the £188 benchmark on Southampton geography. | £180 | |
| Cladding Installer£8 below the £175 benchmark on Southampton geography. | £167 | |
| Suspended Ceiling Installer£8 below the £175 benchmark on Southampton geography. | £167 | |
| General Labourer£6 below the £140 benchmark on Southampton geography. | £134 |
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 Southampton 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 Southampton 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 Southampton, so the next step is pricing one of your own jobs there.
The Rate Sorted calculator opens already set to Southampton, so your own costs go in and a Southampton rate you can quote with comes out.
How long the work takes in Southampton
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 Southampton rates can be multiplied out.
A decorating job in Southampton comes to £382 to £764, on the 15th dearest day rate of the 30 towns on this site.
decorating in Southampton
£382 to £764
A painter and decorator day in Southampton models at £191, 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 Southampton
£242 to £374
A plasterer day in Southampton models at £220, 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 Southampton
£548 to £701
A tiler day in Southampton models at £219, 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 Southampton 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 Southampton measurement.
Why Southampton prices as it does
Southampton prices where its earnings and its housing put it, which is close to the middle.
£234,000
The average house price, against £291,000 across the UK.
£775.80
The South East median weekly pay Southampton is modelled on, 1.2 percent above the UK median of £766.60.
0.80x
Property against the UK average, 20 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 Southampton 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 Southampton charged for a day of work; what they show is why Southampton lands where it does.
South East WEEKLY PAY
£775.80
Southampton is modelled on the South East median for full time work, according to ONS ASHE April 2025.It is 1.2 percent above the UK median of £766.60 a week, and Southampton models at £191 a decorator day on it.South East ranks 2 of the 11 regions on the register, and Southampton is 7 of the 7 South East towns we model on it.
Southampton HOUSE PRICES
£234,000
The Southampton average, data from the ONS local housing price pages, April 2026 provisional.That is 0.80 times the UK average of £291,000, per the UK House Price Index.19 of the 30 towns we cover have more expensive housing.
Southampton questions
The same answers the structured data on this page gives a search engine, word for word, and every figure in them is a Southampton figure printed above.
What is a typical day rate in Southampton?
A decorator day in Southampton models at £191.
That is number 15 of the 30 towns on this site.
Across the 17 trades a Southampton day runs from £134 for general labourer work up to £268 for electrician work, every one of them modelled on South East earnings and Southampton house prices.
Which trade charges the most per day in Southampton?
Electrician, at £268 a day.
General Labourer work is the cheapest of the 17, at £134.
That leaves a £134 span for the same working day in the same town, and it happens because every trade carries its own national benchmark before any Southampton geography is applied to it.
Is Southampton dearer than Portsmouth?
Portsmouth is the dearer of the two: £191 in Southampton against £194 in Portsmouth, a £3 gap on a decorator day.
Southampton and Portsmouth both sit in the South East.
Southampton ranks 7 of the 7 towns we model there.
Why are Southampton rates below the national benchmark?
Two published statistics move the Southampton figure: South East median weekly pay of £775.80, 2 of the 11 regions on the register, and a local average house price of £234,000, 20 of the 30 towns.
Together they put Southampton £9 under the £200 national decorator benchmark.
That is 4.5 percent down.
Can I use these Southampton figures as a quote?
No. £191 is a modelled town figure, and the modelled range beside it, £143 to £248, is arithmetic on that figure rather than a measurement of Southampton jobs.
16 of the 17 Southampton 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 Southampton rows, £134 to £268. Each row carries its own provenance, so a modelled Southampton figure can never be read as a sourced one.
Download · CSVsouthampton.csvOne row per trade, with the rate, the modelled range and the published spread.
Cite this pageThe Day Rate Report, Southampton day rates, 30 September 2026, https://thedayrate.co.uk/day-rates/southampton/
Embed this figure
The Southampton 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/southampton/"><img src="https://thedayrate.co.uk/og/day-rates-southampton.png" alt="Day rates for 17 trades in Southampton, from The Day Rate Report" width="1200" height="630"></a>
The Southampton 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.