How much does a new fitted kitchen cost in the UK?

Pricing a new kitchen is harder than pricing most other home improvements, because the final bill is really the sum of several very different budgets — cabinetry, worktops, appliances, labour and often plumbing or electrical work — rather than one single price tag. Understanding roughly where the money goes makes it much easier to compare quotes fairly and to work out where your own budget is best spent.

As a broad starting point, a new fitted kitchen in the UK commonly costs somewhere in the region of £10,000-£20,000, with budget projects starting from around £5,000 and premium, fully bespoke schemes running up to roughly £40,000 or more. A realistic mid-range figure that comes up often in UK cost guides is around £12,000-£15,000 supplied and fitted, for a fairly typical kitchen of about 10-13m². These are wide ranges by design — specification, brand, and how much structural or trade work is involved all move the number substantially.

Cabinetry and units are usually the single biggest line item in the budget. On a bespoke or semi-bespoke kitchen, units can account for as much as half of the total spend, and even on a fairly standard mid-size kitchen of around a dozen units, the units alone commonly cost in the region of £4,000-£5,000 before worktops, appliances or fitting are added. This is one reason why showroom kitchens from different brands at similar headline prices can vary so much in real terms — carcass construction, door material and hardware quality all sit inside that same "units" line.

Worktops are priced and specified separately from the cabinets, and the material chosen has a big effect on the overall project cost — a laminate worktop and a sintered stone worktop of the same size can differ by several thousand pounds on a typical kitchen run. Because the worktop decision is substantial enough to deserve its own comparison, it's covered in detail in a separate article on this site rather than repeated here.

Labour is the next major component, and it's worth separating "kitchen fitting" labour from any other trades involved. Labour-only kitchen fitting commonly costs somewhere around £1,700-£3,000, though a wider quoted 2026 band of about £2,200-£4,600 also appears in cost guides, reflecting how much fitting complexity and kitchen size affect the final figure. A typical day rate for a kitchen fitter is commonly quoted at around £250-£350, with London and the South East generally sitting at the higher end of that range. As a rough share of the overall project, labour commonly makes up around 20-30% of total spend, with plumbing, flooring and electrical work together adding a further 30% or so on top — so trades collectively can account for well over half the total bill on a project that also involves moving pipework or rewiring.

Appliances sit somewhat outside these figures, since cost varies enormously by brand, specification and whether they're integrated or freestanding — costs vary by specification and it isn't realistic to quote a single "typical" appliance budget the way it's possible to for units or labour. It's worth pricing appliances as their own line separately, rather than assuming a headline kitchen quote automatically includes the oven, hob, extractor, dishwasher and fridge-freezer you actually want.

A few other factors regularly push costs up beyond a straightforward like-for-like refit. Moving a sink, hob or radiator to a new position generally means more plumbing and electrical work than simply replacing what's already there in the same spot. Structural changes, such as removing a wall or altering an opening, add builder's costs on top of the kitchen itself. And older properties sometimes reveal unexpected issues, such as damp, uneven floors, or wiring that needs upgrading, once the old kitchen is stripped out — which is one reason many fitters build a contingency into their quote or flag it as a likely additional cost rather than a fixed one.

When comparing quotes from different fitters or showrooms, it's worth asking for a full breakdown rather than a single lump-sum figure — units, worktop, appliances, labour, and any plumbing, electrical or building work should ideally each be itemised, so you can see exactly what you're paying for and compare like with like between different companies.

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