Ask three security companies for a price and you can easily get three very different numbers, which makes it hard to tell whether you are being quoted fairly. The honest answer is that hourly rates sit within a fairly narrow band once you strip out the marketing, and most of the variation comes from shift length, timing and how many hours you commit to. Here is how the maths actually works, based on how guarding is priced in Manchester and across Greater Manchester.
For a licensed manned guarding officer in the Manchester area, you should expect roughly £18 to £26 per hour for standard daytime cover on an ongoing contract. Short notice, one off or very short bookings typically land higher, often £25 to £35 per hour, because the company cannot spread its overheads across a long placement.
Anything advertised below about £16 per hour deserves a question or two. Once you account for National Minimum Wage and the April 2025 increase in employer National Insurance, holiday pay accrual, SIA licence costs, insurance and supervision, a legitimate operator has very little room underneath that. Unusually low rates usually mean unpaid breaks, no relief cover when someone calls in sick, or a self employed arrangement that leaves you exposed.
Shift length is the biggest single factor. A 12 hour shift is cheaper per hour than a four hour one, because travel time and administration are the same either way. Four hours is the practical minimum most companies will take on, and some will not go below that at all.
Timing matters nearly as much. Nights, weekends and bank holidays carry uplifts, and Christmas and New Year cover is typically charged at time and a half or double time. Site conditions also feed in: a lone officer on a dark, exposed construction site in Trafford Park needs different pay and welfare provision to someone on a warm reception desk in the city centre.
Every guard working in a public facing security role in the UK must hold a valid SIA licence for the specific activity they are carrying out. You can verify any licence number free of charge on the SIA's public register, and a straightforward company will hand you the numbers without being chased.
Ask directly who employs the officer. If they are genuinely employed by the company, then sickness, holiday and relief cover are the company's problem. If they are self employed subcontractors, gaps in cover quietly become yours. Also ask what the insurance position is, and get the figure in writing rather than taking a verbal reassurance.
Manned guarding is the right tool for occupied sites, live events, and anywhere a physical presence deters trouble or manages people. It is expensive for empty property. A vacant unit or a site between phases of work is often better served by monitored alarms, temporary CCTV towers or scheduled mobile patrols, which cost a fraction of round the clock cover.
A rough comparison helps. Continuous 24 hour manned cover for a week runs into several thousand pounds. A temporary CCTV tower with remote monitoring, or nightly mobile patrols with random timings, can often protect the same site for a few hundred pounds a week. Any decent security company will tell you this rather than selling you hours you do not need, so treat it as a test of who you are dealing with.
Most companies in Greater Manchester set a four hour minimum per shift, because shorter visits do not cover travel and admin. Some will consider a shorter booking as part of a larger ongoing contract.
Yes, night shifts usually carry an uplift over the daytime rate, and weekends and bank holidays add more again. Christmas and New Year is typically the most expensive cover of the year.
Not always, so check. Manned guarding is standard rated at 20 per cent, which is a significant difference on a long contract, and some quotes are presented excluding VAT without making that obvious.