How Much Does a New Kitchen Cost in the UK? (2026 Planning Guide)

Reviewed 18 September 2026. A new kitchen needs a budget built around a specification, not a single national “average”. Cabinet-only offers, labour-only quotations and complete refurbishment projects describe different purchases. Before comparing prices, decide which appliances, surfaces, trade work and finishes each figure includes. Our kitchen cost calculator uses transparent planning allowances and lets you replace them with actual gross quotations.

Published guides are useful reference points, but their dates matter. Checkatrade’s new kitchen cost guide was updated in March 2026 while its component table retained a March 2025 date. Which?’s kitchen-cost article, dated April 2026, identifies BCIS 2025 data and earlier retailer shopping. Neither should be relabelled as observed future pricing.

A historical breakdown, with its scope intact

The following reproduces the arithmetic of Checkatrade’s March 2025 component examples. The middle column is the guide’s illustrative component sum, not a measured median household bill. The low and high columns combine component endpoints; they are not guaranteed project quotations.

The middle components add to £10,550. That is useful arithmetic, but it is not evidence that most households pay that amount. In particular, the table’s £3,000 installation component must not be silently substituted with a separate £3,500 fitting headline while leaving the same total. Different examples can be valid only when their definitions remain separate.

Start with an inventory

Count base, wall and tall cabinets from a plan, rather than guessing from floor area. Record widths, drawer banks, corner mechanisms, appliance housings, visible panels and handles. A tall housing is not equivalent to a plain wall cupboard. In our cabinet cost guide, the £180/£350/£750 mixed-unit figures are explicitly provisional supply allowances with fronts and trims included.

Measure the floor being replaced, not necessarily the whole room. Measure worktop runs and depth separately. A five-metre run at 600 mm depth has an area of three square metres; an island may be much deeper. Ask suppliers how purchasable slabs or packs, rather than just visible dimensions, affect the bill. The worktop guide explains why an installed square-metre rate cannot be compared directly with a supply-only linear-metre allowance.

Separate purchase from installation

A cabinet order does not necessarily include assembly or fitting. Appliance prices may exclude connection and disposal. Flooring supply may include integrated underlay, or require additional adhesive, preparation and accessories. Write down the scope beside each number so that an apparently cheaper quotation is not simply omitting work.

The calculator’s cabinet-fitter option includes ordinary laminate or timber worktop fitting. Specialist stone or acrylic fabrication remains on the worktop line. Its removal option adds a provisional bundle for strip-out, waste and local patch repairs, not every element of a complete refurbishment. Whole-room plastering, decorating and structural work remain separately priced tasks.

What changes between the three calculator tiers?

Budget, mid-range and premium are lower, middle and higher allowances for the materials you selected. Choosing laminate does not secretly switch the premium result to marble. The named appliance basket also stays the same, although its purchase allowance changes. A quoted whole-line amount replaces that allowance in all three tiers.

The default kitchen is an example specification, not a representative UK household: 12 units, laminate, a standard appliance basket, LVT, cabinet fitting and minor services. Size presets are starting quantities. Our small-kitchen example and large-kitchen example now use the same engine, so their displayed components reconcile rather than relying on independently typed totals.

Treat services as a scoped job

Keeping the sink or hob in the same position can avoid some alterations, but it does not prove that disconnection, reconnection, testing and certification cost nothing. Ask the electrician and plumber to list the actual tasks. A combined services allowance should not be added on top of an installation package that already covers those tasks.

Our plumbing and electrical guide explains the difference between provisional budgets and task-level quotations. Major changes require a survey. A kitchen services allowance does not include boiler replacement or solve a structural or drainage constraint merely because money has been set aside.

Location without invented precision

Travel, access, parking, demand and contractor availability can affect prices. However, we do not have a representative regional dataset that supports exact uplifts or discounts for every UK region. The calculator therefore applies no automatic location adjustment and no regional material-price multiplier.

Enter a local gross fitter day rate or a complete line quote instead. This does not claim that London and Northern Ireland cost the same. It avoids presenting unsupported percentages as measured facts. When comparing installers, the agreed scope and person-days are at least as important as the displayed day rate.

VAT, contingency and rounding

GOV.UK lists the standard VAT rate as 20%. Check whether each supplier’s quotation is net, gross or from a business that does not charge VAT. Our inputs are gross: no extra VAT is added. Applying 20% again to a VAT-inclusive retail price would overstate the cost.

Which?’s planning guidance recommends a 10–15% contingency. We show that reserve separately. Each line rounds to the nearest £50, the subtotal adds those displayed lines, and the rounded reserve is added last. Known omitted tasks need their own quotes; a contingency is not a substitute for pricing them.

Before committing

Keep a simple budget register showing the date, supplier, amount, tax basis and included work for each quotation. Mark allowances that have not yet been replaced, and record any expiry date. When a design change affects the cabinet count, worktop shape or appliances, ask which associated quotations need revision rather than assuming their old totals still apply.

Compare at least three written, itemised quotations for the same plan. Confirm exclusions, tax basis, delivery, installation responsibility, variations and payment stages. Citizens Advice recommends minimising deposits and advises against agreeing to more than 25% up front; this is consumer guidance, not a statutory percentage limit.

Use the pricing methodology to check the calculator’s boundaries, then replace uncertain allowances as quotes arrive. The aim is an explainable budget with clearly identified unknowns, not a falsely precise promise about what every kitchen should cost.