Average Plumber & Gas Engineer Rates In 2025
In the trades, pricing is everything.
A busy schedule but still struggling to make ends meet; perfect marketing but finding no work; charging the ‘standard rate’, but turning no profit.
More often than not, these are a direct result of poor pricing. It’s a well known problem that the trades, heating and plumbing especially, undervalue their own labour—and it can soon become a race to the bottom of who can charge less. From there it’s all the stress, poor work-life balance, and rushed jobs…
So where does your business sit, and are you charging enough?
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UK gas engineer & plumber hourly rates
From an anonymous sample size of 6000+ UK heating and plumbing businesses using Gas Engineer Software, we’ve gathered accurate prices for gas engineer & plumber hourly rates, call out charges, and gas safety checks.
| 2025 Prices | |
|---|---|
| Average Labour Rate | £58 |
| Average Call Out Fee | £86 |
| Average Emergency Call Out Fee | £109 |
| Average Gas Safety Check | £78 |
These figures should give you an idea of how you compare to other self-employed heating & plumbing businesses within the UK.
This table is a good starting place to determine where your prices sit, but it’s always good practise to fully break down your costs and work our your own hourly rate as well.
You can then compare these two figures and understand whether you need to be charging more than the average based on factors such as location, type of customer, and whether you want to position your brand as a premium service provider.
Gas engineer & plumber hourly rate
An hourly rate is crucial not only for pricing jobs but understanding your profitability. Plumbers and gas engineers will usually have an hourly rate alongside a callout fee or emergency rate.
The average self-employed plumber & gas engineer hourly rate is £58.57 in 2025.
Gas engineer & plumber day rate
For larger jobs, a day rate simplifies pricing for customers.
The average self-employed plumber & gas engineer day rate is £400 in 2025.
The dangers of underpricing
Setting low prices can look appealing and you’ll probably attract more customers because of it. Quiet summers, the rising cost of living, and larger businesses offering ridiculously good deals at a loss to grow their market share can make it difficult, but there are a few major downsides to it:
- You’ll make less profit (obvious, but crucial).
- Raising prices later while keeping your customers can be incredibly tough.
- The type of customer after a cheap job are often not those who remain loyal and return for repeat business.
- Low prices and busy schedules are a one-way ticket to getting stressed and burnt out.
- It’s often a race to the bottom with pricing, ending up with some ridiculously low prices and even selling boilers at cost.
- Slim margins mean that it only takes one or two jobs that go off track to wipe out your entire month’s profit.
If you find that you charge less than the average but are constantly filling up your calendar, you should look at increasing your prices.
By striking a balance, your revenue will either maintain its level with fewer hours or increase with the same number of hours – a win-win scenario.
Why do so many heating and plumbing businesses underprice?
Starting a heating and plumbing business is no easy task, and it’s proven itself a competitive industry especially these past few years. Struggling businesses are incentivised to charge as little as possible because it will help them get jobs, but it’s a deceptive strategy.
As Derek Robins from TomKat Training says, these engineers are devaluing themselves and their work. Many see the tendency to undercut prices as a “race to the bottom” that ultimately benefits nobody — not even the customer.
Base your prices around your goals
Ultimately, your prices need to help you make enough money to meet your goals.
Pricing affects these goals because it can change the way your business works. Do you want:
- To maintain a small-scale operation?
- Drive growth and hire more employees?
- Position yourself as a high-quality service provider?
- Run a highly competitive and economical business?
It’s up to you where you want to position your company in the market, but the one common thread is that pricing too low makes any of these difficult to achieve.
Why the most profitable businesses are working less
One way to measure success in a heating and plumbing business is by how much revenue they earn per employee.
Most successful businesses share one key trait: They charge more than the average.
The fact that the companies that charge slightly more can still fill their calendars suggests that a significant portion of gas engineers under-price their services.
By running an organised and efficient company, you can provide real value to your customers charge a premium.
How to justify charging more
You may lose a few customers by charging an increased (but still fair) rate, but you’ll make up for it with the extra profit.
Some ways to justify your costs include:
- Transparent pricing
- Having a great collection of reviews
- Going the extra mile
- Using more premium materials
Customers that respect quality work are generally better to work for than those that simply want the cheapest price.
Save hours every week with Gas Engineer Software
Charging higher is far easier when you have the time to do your best work and make customers feel valued.
Gas Engineer Software users save on average 6.6 hours per week thanks to an efficient workflow. Automated reminders help you find more work and get paid on time, QR code payments make it easy for customers to pay, and all your paperwork can be created and sent from your phone.