£15 an hour. That was the figure being thrown around on a well-known social media platform — not Facebook — where customers were openly debating what tradespeople should charge. £15 an hour, or £130 a day, was being described as a perfectly acceptable rate.

Let’s make one thing absolutely clear: no legitimate tradesperson in 2026 can charge £15 an hour. That rate is virtually identical to the National Minimum Wage. And that’s the crux of the problem — people are confusing a business rate with a take-home wage. They are not the same thing. Not even close.