Adding a plug socket usually costs £80 to £250 with an electrician in 2026. Here is what sits behind that range, when a socket needs building regulations sign-off, and how to get an accurate quote.
The cost to add a socket is usually £80 to £250 with an electrician in 2026, going by the main UK price guides. A socket spurred from one on the same wall sits at the bottom; one in a new position across the room, with cable chased in, sits at the top. Plastering and decorating are normally extra.
That is a wide range for a small job, and the reason is simple: the socket itself costs a few pounds. What you are paying for is getting a cable to it safely, and that depends on the room, the walls, the floor and the state of the circuit it joins. This guide explains what moves the price, what the rules say, and how to get a quote you can rely on.
What does it cost to add a socket in 2026?
These are the published figures from the UK's main trade-comparison and price-guide sites, with the dates they were last updated. They are national ballpark figures, not our prices, and they are useful as a sense check rather than a quote. Some are given before VAT, so check whether any quote you receive includes it.
Changing a single socket to a double in the same position: £75 to £100 (MyJobQuote, July 2026).
Replacing an existing socket like for like: £65 to £85; swapping only the front plate, £30 to £40 (MyJobQuote, July 2026).
A USB socket in place of a standard one: £75 to £110 (MyJobQuote, July 2026).
A standard socket added to an existing circuit: £80 to £150, with prices in the north of England, Scotland and Wales often £80 to £120 (WhatPrice, September 2025).
A socket in a new position: £120 to £250 (MyJobQuote, July 2026).
An outdoor socket: labour of roughly £130 to £200 or more for a single, plus £10 to £60 for the weatherproof unit itself (Checkatrade, June 2026).
Behind those figures sit labour rates. Checkatrade puts the average electrician at around £50 an hour, usually between £45 and £60, with a day rate of about £400 and emergency work closer to £90 an hour (May 2026). Many electricians also have a minimum charge for a visit, which MyJobQuote puts at £50 to £80. That minimum is why one socket on its own can look expensive, and why several added on the same visit work out cheaper each: WhatPrice gives £250 to £400 for three or four sockets in one room.
What pushes the price up or down?
Two sockets that look identical on the finished wall can be very different jobs. The things that decide it:
Distance from the circuit. A new socket beside one already on that wall is a short job. One on the opposite side of the room means getting a cable across it, under the floor, through the ceiling void or round the skirting.
What the walls are made of. Plasterboard on studs is quick to fish a cable down. Solid brick or block means cutting a chase and making good. Older stone walls are slower again.
What the floor is made of. Suspended timber floors let a cable run underneath with a board or two lifted. A solid concrete floor usually rules that out, so the route goes up and over instead.
Flush or surface mounted. A surface box with the cable in neat trunking avoids chasing altogether and costs less, at the price of being visible. It suits utility rooms, garages and workshops more than a living room.
The state of the circuit you are adding to. New work has to meet the current wiring regulations, and that includes protection by a residual current device (RCD) for sockets. If the circuit has none, that protection has to be added for the new work, usually with an RCD-protected spur where the new cable starts, a combined breaker and RCD (an RCBO) at the board, or as part of a consumer unit upgrade.
The circuit point catches people out most. An electrician adding to a circuit has to test it first, and if that test shows the existing wiring is faulty or unprotected, they cannot simply connect to it and walk away. It is also the moment to ask whether the whole installation has been checked recently; our testing and inspection page explains what a full check involves.
Spur, extend the ring, or run a new circuit?
Most sockets in British homes sit on a ring final circuit: a loop of cable that starts and finishes at the consumer unit, protected by a 32 amp breaker, or a 30 amp fuse on older boards. There are three ways to add a socket, and they are priced very differently.
A spur. A single cable taken off an existing socket to feed a new one. It is the quickest and cheapest option. Wiring guidance limits how many unfused spurs a ring can carry, broadly one per socket on the ring, and each one should feed only a single or double socket. Where more are needed, a fused spur is used instead.
Extending the ring. Breaking into the loop and taking it through the new socket position. Better where several sockets are going into a room, and usually the tidier long-term answer, but it means more access to the cable route.
A new circuit. A new cable all the way back to the consumer unit. Needed for heavy fixed loads such as a cooker or large double oven, an electric shower or a car charger, and sometimes for an extension or a home office full of equipment. It costs the most, needs a spare way on the board, and brings building regulations into play.
If a quote comes in higher than you expected, this is the first thing to ask about. A new circuit where you assumed a spur is a common reason two quotes for "one socket" are far apart, and sometimes it is the right answer rather than an upsell.
Do I need building regulations approval to add a socket?
In England, electrical work in homes falls under Part P of the Building Regulations, and only certain work has to be notified to building control: installing a new circuit, replacing a consumer unit, and any addition or alteration to an existing circuit in a special location, which in a home mainly means the area around a bath or shower. Adding a socket to an existing circuit anywhere else, including the kitchen and outside, is not notifiable.
Not notifiable does not mean nothing needs doing. The work still has to meet BS 7671, the national wiring standard, and you should receive a Minor Electrical Installation Works Certificate for it. Keep it. If the job needs a new circuit, a registered electrician notifies building control through their scheme and you receive a compliance certificate for your records, which a buyer's solicitor may ask to see when the house is sold.
Where can new sockets go?
Most of the rules that affect where a socket can sit are about water and reach.
Bathrooms. Ordinary 13 amp sockets are not allowed within 2.5 metres horizontally of the boundary of zone 1, the space directly above the bath or shower tray, which in many bathrooms rules them out altogether. A shaver supply unit is the usual answer, and bathroom work may need notifying, so check first.
Kitchens. The wiring regulations set no fixed distance from the sink, but long-standing IET good-practice guidance is to keep sockets at least 30 centimetres from a sink or draining board, and to place them so nobody has to reach over a hob to use one. Appliances tucked behind units are best fed from a socket behind the appliance, controlled by a switch above the worktop, so they can be isolated without pulling them out.
Height. In new homes, the building regulations expect sockets and switches in habitable rooms to sit between 450 and 1,200 millimetres above the floor. It is not a requirement when adding to an existing home, but it is a sensible height for anyone who struggles to bend down.
Outside. An outdoor socket needs a weatherproof enclosure with a suitable rating and RCD protection, and the cable to it has to be protected along its route. That route, not the socket, is usually what sets the price.
Are extension leads a cheaper alternative?
For an occasional lamp, a good-quality extension lead is fine. As a permanent answer to too few sockets, it is not. A four-way lead on one socket shares a single 13 amp supply between everything plugged into it, so a kettle, a heater and a tumble dryer on the same lead can overload it, and a lead coiled on a reel gets hotter than one laid out straight. Leads plugged into leads make it worse. If you are relying on them in several rooms, adding sockets is a safety improvement as much as a convenience, and our winter electrical safety checklist covers the warning signs of a lead that is working too hard.
How do I get an accurate quote for a new socket?
A socket quote given over the phone is a guess, because nobody can see the route. You will get a firmer price faster if you:
List every socket you want in one go, room by room, including any outside.
Send photos of the nearest existing socket, the wall where the new one is going, and the consumer unit with the flap open so the labels show, but nothing unscrewed.
Say what the floors are, if you know, and whether there is a cellar or loft space the cable could use.
Ask what is included: making good, the certificate, and whether the circuit will be tested before anything is added to it.
We add sockets and new circuits across South Yorkshire as part of our electrical installations work, from our base in Wath upon Dearne and across the wider Rotherham borough.
Frequently asked questions
Can I add a socket myself?
Legally, a homeowner in England can carry out non-notifiable work, such as a new socket on a circuit that already exists, as long as it meets the wiring regulations. The catch is the testing: without the right instrument you cannot confirm the new socket is safe or that the circuit you joined was sound. Notifiable work done yourself, such as a new circuit, has to go to building control before you start.
How long does it take to fit a new socket?
A socket beside an existing one is usually an hour or two, including testing. One in a new position with a chased-in cable can take half a day, depending on the walls and floors, and several sockets in one room can take most of a day.
Will another socket overload my ring main?
Not by itself. The number of sockets matters far less than what runs at the same time. A 3 kilowatt heater draws about 13 amps, so two heaters and a kettle going together already ask more of a ring than its protection is designed to carry for long. A room that needs that kind of load is better served by a circuit of its own than by another spur.
Is it worth paying extra for USB sockets?
For a bedside or a desk, often yes, because it frees up the plug sockets and does away with loose chargers. Choose a reputable brand with a clearly stated output, and check it supports the connector your devices use; a cheap unit can charge a modern phone far more slowly than the charger that came with it.
The bottom line
Expect somewhere between £80 and £250 per socket, towards the lower end for a short spur and the upper end for a new position across a room, with the price per socket falling when several go in on one visit. The route the cable takes and the condition of the circuit decide where in that range you land, so a good electrician will want to look at both before giving you a figure.
