The typical security guard charge-out rate in the UK is £14–£19 per hour for day shifts and £16–£23 per hour for night shifts, with London rates running 40–50% higher. But knowing the market average is only half the battle — the real question is whether your contracts are priced to cover your true costs and still leave a healthy margin.
If you run a security company, your charge-out rate is the single most important number in your business. Set it too low and every hour you sell loses money; set it too high without justification and you’ll lose tenders to competitors. This guide shows you exactly how to calculate a profitable charge-out rate, what the UK market looks like in 2026, and how to price contracts that win work and protect your margins.
Key Takeaways
- UK security guard charge-out rates typically range from £14–£19/hr (day) and £16–£23/hr (night) nationally, rising to £20–£35/hr in London depending on the service level.
- Pay is the biggest cost: base officer wages make up roughly 55–60% of the rate, with the National Living Wage at £12.71/hr for workers aged 21 and over in 2026.
- The pricing formula: Charge-out rate = Fully loaded hourly cost ÷ (1 − target profit margin).
- A sustainable gross margin for UK manned guarding providers is typically 5–10% after all costs — anyone quoting far below market average is likely cutting corners on licensing, vetting, or employment costs.
- London commands a 40–50% premium over the national average due to higher wages, transport costs, and site complexity.
What Is a Security Guard Charge-Out Rate?
A security guard charge-out rate is the hourly price your security company bills a client for each hour of guarding provided. It is not the same as the guard’s pay rate — it’s the fully loaded commercial price that must cover:
- The officer’s wages (at or above the National Living Wage)
- Employer National Insurance contributions, pension, and holiday pay
- SIA licensing, vetting, and training costs
- Supervision, scheduling, and management overhead
- Uniform, equipment, and insurance
- Your company’s profit margin
Getting this distinction right matters because many new providers make the same costly mistake: they look at what guards are paid (£12–£14 per hour) and price contracts only slightly above it — forgetting that employment costs, compliance, and overheads push the true cost of delivering an hour of guarding far higher.
Average Security Guard Charge-Out Rates in the UK (2026)
Based on current market data, here is what security guard charge-out rates look like across the UK:
| Region | Day Rate | Night Rate | Notes |
| Central / Greater London | £20–£28/hr | £23–£32/hr | 40–50% premium; transport and wage costs |
| South East (corporate security) | £20–£30/hr | — | Front-of-house, access control standards |
| London (corporate security) | £25–£35/hr | — | Premium sites, HQ contracts |
| Surrey & Berkshire | £15–£20/hr | £17–£24/hr | Close to national average |
| Hampshire, Kent, Essex | £14–£19/hr | £16–£23/hr | National average band |
| East & West Sussex | £14–£19/hr | £16–£22/hr | Often served by mobile patrols |
| Midlands & North | £18–£22/hr | — | Baseline regional pricing |
| Scotland & Wales | £18–£22/hr | — | Baseline regional pricing |
| Event security (London) | £18–£35/hr | — | Varies by crowd size and risk |
The headline figures: most UK manned guarding contracts are priced between £18 and £30 per hour in 2026, depending on region, shift pattern, and risk exposure.
Important context for buyers: deploying an unlicensed guard is a criminal offence under the Private Security Industry Act 2001 — and liability can fall on the hiring business, not just the provider. Any quote significantly below these ranges for SIA-licensed officers should raise serious questions about what’s being skipped. Security guard management software with automated SIA licence checks helps providers prove every officer on a contract is licensed and compliant.
What Makes Up the Charge-Out Rate? (Cost Breakdown)
Here’s where a typical £17/hour day rate actually goes:
| Cost Component | Share of Rate | What It Covers |
| Officer pay | ~55–60% | Base wages at £12.71/hr (National Living Wage) or above |
| Employer NIC & statutory costs | ~10–12% | Employer NIC at 15%, pension contributions, holiday pay, statutory sick pay |
| SIA licence & training | ~5–8% | SIA licence fee (£204 from April 2026), BS7858 vetting, induction and refresher training |
| Supervision & management | ~10–12% | Site supervision, scheduling, incident reporting, quality checks |
| Uniform, equipment & insurance | ~5–7% | PPE, radios, employer’s liability and public liability cover |
| Provider margin | ~5–10% | Business overheads and reasonable profit |
The exact split varies by provider and contract, but the pattern holds: the majority of the rate is pay and statutory employment costs, not profit.
Two cost pressures worth noting for 2026 pricing:
- The SIA licence fee rose to £204 from 1 April 2026 after the historic £20 rebate was removed.
- Employer National Insurance is 15%, and the Real Living Wage (a voluntary benchmark many corporate clients expect) is £14.80 in London and £13.45 elsewhere — well above the statutory £12.71.
How to Calculate Your Security Guard Charge-Out Rate (Step by Step)
Step 1: Start with the fully loaded hourly cost
Don’t price from the wage — price from the fully loaded cost of employing a guard for one hour:
Fully loaded cost = Base pay + Employer NIC (15%) + Pension contributions (~3%) + Holiday pay accrual (~12.07%) + SSP and statutory cost allowance + SIA licence, vetting & training (amortised per hour) + Uniform, equipment & insurance share + Supervision & management allocation
Worked example
For a standard static guarding contract outside London:
| Line item | Cost per hour |
| Base pay (National Living Wage 21+) | £12.71 |
| Employer NIC, pension, holiday pay, SSP (~25%) | £3.18 |
| SIA licence (£204 ÷ 2,000 hrs), vetting & training | £0.55 |
| Uniform, equipment, insurance | £0.85 |
| Supervision & management allocation | £1.60 |
| Fully loaded cost | ≈ £18.89 |
Step 2: Apply your target margin
This is where many providers confuse markup with margin:
- Markup = (price − cost) ÷ cost
- Margin = (price − cost) ÷ price
A 50% markup is only a 33% margin. To hit a target margin, use:
Charge-out rate = Fully loaded cost ÷ (1 − target margin)
Continuing the example, targeting a 10% net margin:
£18.89 ÷ (1 − 0.10) = £18.89 ÷ 0.90 = £20.99/hr
Your charge-out rate: £21 per hour. Quote below ~£19 and you’re working for single-digit or negative margin on this cost base.
Step 3: Sanity-check against the market
Your cost-based figure sets the floor — not the final price. Compare it against the regional rates table above. If your floor sits above what the market pays, the answer is not to accept a thinner margin; it’s to change your cost base (efficiency, contract density, shift patterns) or reposition your offer (specialist services command premium rates).
7 Factors That Change Your Charge-Out Rate
- Location — London carries a 40–50% premium; commuter-belt counties sit 5–15% above baseline.
- Shift pattern — Nights, weekends, and bank holidays typically add £2–£5/hr.
- Service type — Corporate front-of-house (£25–£35/hr in London) commands more than basic static guarding; event security (£18–£35/hr) varies with crowd risk.
- Officer calibre — Close protection, CCTV operators, and door supervisors with specialist skills price higher than standard security officers.
- Contract length — Long-term contracts often carry slightly lower rates but deliver far better utilisation and cash-flow certainty.
- Minimum shift lengths — 8–12 hour minimums are standard; short ad-hoc shifts need higher hourly rates to cover mobilisation.
- Compliance level — SIA Approved Contractor Scheme accreditation, BS7858 vetting, and Real Living Wage commitments cost more but win corporate and public-sector tenders.
5 Pricing Mistakes That Kill Security Company Margins
- Pricing from the pay rate, not the loaded cost. The guard’s wage is barely half the true cost of the hour you sell.
- Ignoring unbillable hours. Admin, training, sickness cover, and scheduling time all have to be absorbed by billable hours — forgetting this is the most common cause of unprofitable pricing. Automated timesheets and attendance tracking make your true labour cost per contract visible instead of guesswork.
- Confusing markup with margin. A “50% markup” sounds healthy until you realise it’s a 33% margin that evaporates after overheads.
- Undercutting to win, then cutting corners. Quotes below ~£15/hr for licensed, employed officers almost always mean skipped vetting, fake self-employment, or unpaid training — all of which create legal exposure for you and your client.
- Forgetting VAT and annual uplifts. Confirm whether your quote is exclusive of VAT, and build annual wage-inflation clauses (NLW and NIC changes) into multi-year contracts.
How to Price Contracts That Win Work and Protect Margin
- Tier your offering: a standard, enhanced, and premium service level lets price-sensitive buyers choose you without forcing you to discount your core rate.
- Sell the cost breakdown, not just the number. Clients who see where the £21 goes (pay, NIC, SIA, supervision, insurance) stop comparing you to the £14 cowboy quote.
- Bundle services: combining static guards with mobile patrols or CCTV monitoring increases contract value and reduces your per-site overhead.
- Lock in longer terms: offer a modest rate advantage for 2–3 year contracts in exchange for utilisation certainty — your margin per hour improves even as the headline rate dips.
- Track margin per contract in real time: with BOOK ON Accounts, you can monitor labour cost against every contract as shifts happen — so you spot margin erosion before it becomes a loss.
- Review annually: set calendar reminders to re-price before NLW, NIC, or SIA fee changes land, and write indexation into your terms.
Conclusion
Pricing security contracts is straightforward once you work from the right numbers: build your fully loaded cost from the ground up, set your price from a target margin (not a gut-feel markup), and sanity-check against regional market rates. In 2026, that means charge-out rates of roughly £14–£19/hr nationally and £20–£32/hr in London for standard manned guarding — with anything far below those bands a red flag for both providers and buyers.
Price with confidence, document your cost breakdown for clients, and review your rates every time statutory costs move. That’s how contracts stay profitable year after year.
Protect your margins on every contract
BOOK ON gives you live visibility of labour cost against every contract — scheduling, timesheets, payroll, and margin tracking in one platform built for UK security companies.