National benchmark
£253
A modelled benchmark, published beside the guide spread rather than derived from it.
Our benchmark for a general builder is £253 a day.
Published UK price guides put general builders between £133 and £400, checked 30 September 2026.
Sources: Checkatrade, MyBuilder, HaMuch, CostEstimator, PriceYourJob (2025 guide) and MyJobQuote.
General Builder rates across 30 towns
Ranked by modelled general builder day rate, built the way the method band below sets out. The modelled range beside each town is drawn to one shared scale, so two general builder towns can be read straight off against each other.
Showing all 30 towns.
No town on this page matches that. All 30 are in the table, and the town index explains which towns are not modelled and why.
| # | Town | Rate | vs £253 | Modelled range |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | GuildfordSouth East£224 to £387 | £298 | £45 above | |
| 2 | OxfordSouth East£218 to £377 | £290 | £37 above | |
| 3 | CambridgeEast of England£215 to £372 | £286 | £33 above | |
| 4 | BrightonSouth East£208 to £360 | £277 | £24 above | |
| 5 | BathSouth West£201 to £348 | £268 | £15 above | |
| 6 | ReadingSouth East£200 to £346 | £266 | £13 above | |
| 7 | BristolSouth West£195 to £338 | £260 | £7 above | |
| 8 | Milton KeynesSouth East£195 to £338 | £260 | £7 above | |
| 9 | CheltenhamSouth West£192 to £333 | £256 | £3 above | |
| 10 | EdinburghScotland£191 to £332 | £255 | £2 above | |
| 11 | YorkYorkshire£185 to £321 | £247 | £6 below | |
| 12 | ExeterSouth West£185 to £320 | £246 | £7 below | |
| 13 | PortsmouthSouth East£184 to £319 | £245 | £8 below | |
| 14 | NorthamptonEast Midlands£182 to £316 | £243 | £10 below | |
| 15 | SouthamptonSouth East£182 to £315 | £242 | £11 below | |
| 16 | CardiffWales£179 to £311 | £239 | £14 below | |
| 17 | NorwichEast of England£179 to £311 | £239 | £14 below | |
| 18 | ManchesterNorth West£179 to £309 | £238 | £15 below | |
| 19 | BirminghamWest Midlands£176 to £306 | £235 | £18 below | |
| 20 | LeedsYorkshire£176 to £304 | £234 | £19 below | |
| 21 | LeicesterEast Midlands£173 to £299 | £230 | £23 below | |
| 22 | CoventryWest Midlands£173 to £299 | £230 | £23 below | |
| 23 | GlasgowScotland£172 to £298 | £229 | £24 below | |
| 24 | SheffieldYorkshire£171 to £296 | £228 | £25 below | |
| 25 | DerbyEast Midlands£167 to £290 | £223 | £30 below | |
| 26 | LiverpoolNorth West£167 to £289 | £222 | £31 below | |
| 27 | NewcastleNorth East£164 to £285 | £219 | £34 below | |
| 28 | NottinghamEast Midlands£164 to £285 | £219 | £34 below | |
| 29 | Stoke-on-TrentWest Midlands£159 to £276 | £212 | £41 below | |
| 30 | SunderlandNorth East£152 to £263 | £202 | £51 below |
Read the rangeEvery range spans the same fraction of its own town rate, 0.75 to 1.30, so a higher priced town shows a wider one.That extra width is arithmetic and not evidence, because the range is a fixed rule rather than a measurement.
- Scale every bar drawn on £150 to £390
- Range the modelled range, the rate x 0.75 and x 1.30
Your next step
You have the £253 general builder benchmark, so the next step is a general builder rate that covers your own costs.
Put in the take home you want, your van and your insurance, and the Rate Sorted calculator turns them into your own general builder day rate, ready to price a job with.
Highest town
£298
Guildford, the biggest premium over the benchmark in the 30.
Cheapest town
£202
Sunderland, £51 under the benchmark and the floor of the table.
Published guide spread
£133 to £400
What 6 named guides publish for general builders, checked 30 September 2026.
Hiring a general builder?
A general builder quote between £133 and £400 a day is inside what the UK guides publish, and £253 is the benchmark this site models from.
Quoting as a general builder?
£253 puts general builders 5 of 17 on this site, between £140 for general labourer work and £280 for electrician.
How the 30 towns spread out
Every town on one axis, marked against £253. It shows where the weight of the general builder table sits, and how far each end has travelled from that benchmark.
£253 benchmark
Guildford £298
Sunderland sits at the other end, on £202.
That is a £96 span across the 30 towns for one day of the same work, and because every trade page on this site draws its rail on the identical £150 to £390 scale, general builders can be laid over any other trade here and read tick for tick.
Half the table sits here
17 of the 30 towns fall between £229 and £260. Read that middle £31 band first when a general builder quote needs a quick sanity check against somewhere of a similar size.
Above the benchmark
10 towns clear £253, and 9 of those are in the South East, South West or East of England.
How each town figure is built
Three inputs, in this order, and nothing else goes in.
- 01The trade benchmark, £253Stated and sourced at the top of this page. Nothing on this page works it out again.
- 02A geography multiplier, trade neutralOne multiplier per town, built from earnings data from the ONS and local house prices, applied to every trade the same way.
- 03A modelled range of 0.75 and 1.30Low and high are the town's own modelled rate multiplied by 0.75 and by 1.30, never the benchmark.
Rate estimates blend a national general builder day rate benchmark, checked against dated UK trade price guides, with official ONS regional earnings and local house price data.
Figures are modelled estimates for guidance, not quotes.
Sources: ONS ASHE 2025, UK House Price Index April 2026.
Nothing on this page is a survey of what general builders charged.
The full working behind every general builder figure, with each source dated, is on the methodology page.
Which regions pay the most
The median of the towns we cover in each region, which means a region with one town in it is that one town. London has no modelled town yet, so it does not appear.
South East7 towns covered, £242 to £298£266
East of England2 towns covered, £239 to £286£263
South West4 towns covered, £246 to £268£258
Scotland2 towns covered, £229 to £255£242
Wales1 town covered, £239 to £239£239
Yorkshire3 towns covered, £228 to £247£234
North West2 towns covered, £222 to £238£230
West Midlands3 towns covered, £212 to £235£230
East Midlands4 towns covered, £219 to £243£227
North East2 towns covered, £202 to £219£211
The spread is the story
A Guildford day and a Sunderland day are the same general builder work at a £96 difference.
How the £253 is set, and what checks it
The first card is the spread published according to the named UK price guides. The rest are independent checks that never fed the £253.
What the guides publish
£133 to £400
6 named UK price guides publish a general builder day rate.Between them they run from £133 to £400, and the £253 benchmark sits inside that.It is the figure the benchmark is published beside; the cards after it are the tests.
Checkatrade, MyBuilder, HaMuch, CostEstimator, PriceYourJob (2025 guide) and MyJobQuote, checked 30 September 2026
Office for National Statistics
ONS
The Office for National Statistics spreads general building across several trade groups.
ONS ASHE 2025 provisional, employee earnings, not a charge out rate · ASHE Table 14
Hudson Contract, what firms pay
£1,042
Hudson Contract, which tracks what firms pay trades, has general construction at £1,042 a week, about £208 a day.
Hudson Contract, subcontractor payroll, England and Wales, three year average, July 2023 to June 2026
Fewer guides cover this tradeOne price guide figure looked wrong and was double checked, so treat this figure with extra care.
General Builder wages and pay rates
What general builders are paid is a different measurement from the £253 a customer is charged, and both are on this page.
Paid as an employee
Not published
ONS spreads general building work across several construction codes, so no single builder median exists to quote.
Paid as a subcontractor
£208 a day
Hudson Contract paid £1,042 a week on its general construction series, which is £208 over five days.this trade, published by Hudson under its own name
What tradespeople earn sets general builders beside the other 16 trades, sourced 5 September 2026.
Pricing a short job rather than a full day, the £253 works out at £36.14 an hour on the working day this site assumes, which is ours rather than a published figure.
What the trades charge an hour sets that against the hourly range the price guides publish for general builders, and names the day it divides by.
Against the decorator benchmark
Decorators benchmark at £200 a day on this site.
General building comes in £53 over that figure.
- General Builder benchmark
- £253
- Painter and decorator benchmark
- £200
- Gap at the benchmark
- £53 over
Common questions
The same answers the structured data on this page gives a search engine, word for word.
How much does a general builder charge per day in the UK?
Our benchmark for a general builder is £253 a day.
Published UK price guides put general builders between £133 and £400, checked 30 September 2026.
Sources: Checkatrade, MyBuilder, HaMuch, CostEstimator, PriceYourJob (2025 guide) and MyJobQuote.
Across the 30 modelled towns the figure runs from £202 in Sunderland to £298 in Guildford.
Does the general builder day rate include materials or VAT?
No.
The £253 is one full working day of general builder labour, before materials and VAT.
Why do general builder rates differ between towns?
The £253 benchmark is spread town by town with ONS regional earnings (ASHE 2025) and local house prices (UK House Price Index, April 2026).
That is what puts £298 on Guildford and £202 on Sunderland.
That is a £96 gap across the 30 towns for the same day of general builder work.
What is the general builder pay rate in the UK?
The general builder pay rate depends on who is paying it.
ONS spreads general building work across several construction codes, so no single builder median exists to quote.
For general builders paid as subcontractors instead, the Hudson Contract figure is its general construction series at £1,042 a week, which works out at about £208 a day over a five day week.
That is a true general builder series.
Neither is the £253 a general builder charges a customer.
Take the data
Every figure on this page is in the file, with the same sources and the same date.
Download · CSVgeneral-builder-day-rates.csv30 rows, one per town, with the rate, the modelled range and the published spread.
Cite this pageThe Day Rate Report, General Builder day rates, 30 September 2026, https://thedayrate.co.uk/general-builder-day-rates/
Embed this figure
The general builder card carries the benchmark and the date, and the link goes to this page.
<a href="https://thedayrate.co.uk/general-builder-day-rates/"><img src="https://thedayrate.co.uk/og/general-builder-day-rates.png" alt="General Builder day rates in 30 UK towns, from The Day Rate Report" width="1200" height="630"></a>
The general builder figures are free to use in an article, a fact check or a quote, and a credit with a link back is all we ask, under CC BY 4.0.
Quoting general builder work yourself?The £253 general builder benchmark beside every other trade on this site, read from the side of the person sending the invoice.What should I chargeWeighing up a general builder quote?A £253 general builder day multiplied by the day count is the sum behind a whole job price.Day rate or price per job
The full guide index carries all 12, including the ones that turn the general builder day rate into a job price.
None of the 30 towns modelled above is London, where this site publishes no general builder rate of its own and prints what the named guides publish instead.