It is inevitable that a BTL landlord will have to hire a tradesperson to carry out necessary repair or maintenance work with costs varying widely across the regions.

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A comparison website collates and compares current average hourly cost of hiring tradespersons across the UK and how prices differ across the regions. The trades included - builder, plumber, heating engineer, electrician, carpenter, painter, gardener, cleaner and car mechanic.

Newbury in Berkshire has the highest average cost in the UK for contracting a tradesperson of £47 per hour, in the same county Reading is £43 and Bracknell Forest stands at £42 per hour. These costs are much higher than the national average rate of £31 per hour.

Of course, the price of tradespeople also varies depending on what they do. Locksmiths are the most expensive professional by hourly rate, charging £43, next is heating engineers at £41, followed by plumbers at £40. The cheapest tradespeople are cleaners at £18, with painters costing £24 and gardeners £26.

Surprisingly, London isn’t the most expensive. In the capital an average cost of a tradesperson is £41, which although higher than the national average, is not the most expensive e.g. Newbury etc.

The cheapest area is Carmarthenshire in southwest Wales at just £21 per hour which is £26 cheaper than Newbury.

Other cheaper priced areas, where a tradesperson costs around £23, are North and North East Lincolnshire, Dumfries & Galloway and Hull.

Founder and CEO of the tradesperson comparison website Tarquin Purdie, commented: "Hiring tradespeople will always involve a cost but our research shows that it can cost more than twice as much in some areas and this is largely due to factors such as the cost of living, as well as the demand for each profession and the number of tradespeople available to carry out the work."