Builders don't tell you about meter relocation. It's not exciting, it doesn't move bricks, and it looks like someone else's problem. So most homeowners find out about the 6-12 week lead time after groundwork has already started, which is precisely the wrong moment to discover it.
The gas and electric meters in your current kitchen or utility room will almost certainly need to move. The new extension footprint usually swallows the original external wall where they sit. Moving them isn't complicated. But it involves two separate organisations that operate on their own schedules, charge fixed rates, and cannot be hurried regardless of your build programme. The only lever you have is time. Use it early or lose it.
I paid £808.80 to move my gas meter and £1,020.70 to move my electricity supply. During groundwork, the builder struck the live gas service pipe during excavation, costing £856.67 in emergency callout fees. Not because anyone was careless, exactly. Because the coordination of these things is harder than it looks, and nobody explained the sequence to me upfront.
Gas Meter Relocation: The Process and What It Costs
Start with gas, because the process is less obvious.
Your energy supplier does not move your gas meter for a major relocation. They own the meter box, but they don't own the pipe in the ground. For any move greater than about one metre, you need to contact your Gas Distribution Network (GDN), not your supplier. The GDN owns the service pipe that runs from the gas main in the street into your property.
The four GDNs in England are:
- Cadent (North West, Midlands, East Anglia, North London)
- Northern Gas Networks (North East and Yorkshire)
- SGN (Southern Gas Networks) (South and South East England, Scotland)
- Wales & West Utilities (South West England and Wales)
Call your energy supplier first. They'll redirect you to the right GDN. Or check Cadent's and SGN's websites directly if you already know your region.
What it costs
SGN's published rates for a standard domestic gas service alteration in Southern England (outside the M25) are £859+VAT if SGN digs the trench, or £598+VAT if you dig the trench yourself on your own private land. There is a separate meter refit charge of £110 plus VAT if the meter itself needs repositioning. My 2022 invoice from SGN came to £674 ex-VAT, which is £808.80 including VAT. That figure is consistent with a standard alteration in their South East territory.
Cadent uses a standing charge plus a per-metre charge. In 2025, the East Midlands standing charge was £679 ex-VAT, with £139 per metre of pipe. A seven-metre alteration in the East Midlands works out at roughly £1,652 plus VAT if Cadent digs. If you dig your own trench on private land, Cadent reduces the standing charge by 70%, which is a meaningful saving on longer runs.
The physical work takes one to two days. The waiting is the problem.
SGN's published lead time is "normally between 6-12 weeks" from payment to works completion. Cadent says "on average, 6-8 weeks from payment." Neither figure includes the time it takes to get the quote, review it, and pay. The realistic elapsed time from your first contact to works complete is 10-14 weeks.
Who digs the trench?
This is where things get complicated, and where builds stall.
The GDN needs a clear service trench from the gas main connection point to the new meter position before they'll lay new pipework. Either they dig it, or you do. If you dig it yourself (or your groundwork contractor does), you save money. But you also take on responsibility for coordinating the excavation to be complete and ready when the GDN team shows up.
In my build, the original main contractor agreed to dig the service trenches. He never did. I ended up engaging a separate groundwork contractor eight months later to dig service trenches, install drainage, and handle the soakaway. That job cost £3,250, though it covered drainage work too, not just the meter trench. Some of that was directly tied to the meter relocation; some covered drainage work the original contractor had also failed to arrange. The point is: if the trench isn't dug when the GDN arrives, they leave. You go back to the end of the queue.
Get trench responsibility confirmed in writing before you book the GDN. If your builder agrees to dig the trench, write it into the scope of work with a specific completion date. Don't assume.
Electric Meter Relocation: The DNO Process
Electricity works differently from gas at the infrastructure level, but the homeowner experience is almost identical: wrong first contact, redirect, long wait.
Your energy supplier owns the electricity meter. But the cable feeding the meter from the street is owned by your Distribution Network Operator (DNO). The DNOs in England include National Grid Electricity Distribution (covering the Midlands, South West, Wales and East of England), UK Power Networks (South East, London, East Anglia), Electricity North West, Northern Powergrid, and SSEN (parts of South England and Scotland).
For any move of more than one metre, you contact your DNO directly, not your supplier.
The process runs: apply online to your DNO, receive a quote within five working days, accept and pay, a project manager contacts you within ten working days, works are scheduled. You must also arrange for an electrician to attend on the same day as the DNO, because the DNO reconnects the incoming supply cable but your electrician must handle the internal consumer unit reconnection.
My SSEN invoice for the electricity supply alteration came to £850.59 ex-VAT, which is £1,020.70 including VAT. SSEN's published 2026 base rates for a standard extended underground alteration in South England start at around £455. My cost was higher, reflecting a longer cable run and the complexity of the supply alteration involved. Extended alterations requiring new cable runs regularly exceed the base published rates.
When to Start This Process
The right time to initiate both applications is at the pre-construction stage, before groundwork begins. In practice, this means once planning permission is granted and you have a confirmed builder start date.
Build your meter relocation timeline backwards. If groundwork starts in October, you need the meters moved before the external walls go up (because the new meter positions will be on those walls). That means works complete by, say, September. That means you need to have paid and booked by late July to allow for the 6-8 week lead time. That means quotes accepted in mid-July. That means you need to have contacted both the GDN and DNO in June or earlier.
Most homeowners contact them in September, when groundwork has already started.
Initiate contact with your GDN and DNO at the same time you submit your building control application. You don't need final drawings. You need enough information to describe where the meter is now and where it needs to go.
Gas meter relocation (standard domestic, GDN digs trench)
£750 – £1,200
Varies by GDN region, distance, and whether homeowner digs trench. SGN: £859+VAT standard. Cadent: standing charge + per-metre rate. Ian's 2022 SGN invoice: £808.80 inc VAT.
Electric meter relocation (DNO service alteration)
£400 – £1,200
Basic alteration starts lower; extended alteration requiring new cable run considerably higher. Ian's 2022 SSEN invoice: £1,020.71 inc VAT.
What Happens When a Gas Pipe Gets Struck
This part doesn't appear in any guide to utility costs, but it should.
During groundwork on my extension, the builder's excavation struck the live gas service pipe. It was my groundwork contractor who found the problem during trenching, smelled gas, and called it in. The emergency number is 0800 111 999. SGN sends an emergency crew, they isolate and repair the pipe. That one callout cost £856.67.
It happened during the same trenching exercise that was supposed to prepare the ground for the meter relocation. There is a particular irony in the gas pipe being disturbed by the work intended to enable the move.
Total emergency callout cost: £856.67.
Under Pipelines Safety Regulations 1996 Regulation 15, causing damage to a pipeline that creates a dangerous situation is a criminal offence. The liability sits with the contractor whose excavation caused the strike. The GDN (SGN in this case) will recharge all repair and emergency response costs. Your contractor's public liability insurance should cover it, but confirm this explicitly before they dig. The HSE has prosecuted contractors for striking gas pipes on domestic projects and continuing to work afterwards.
The precaution is simple and often skipped: before any mechanical excavation within 500mm of a marked gas service pipe, switch to hand digging. The network operator will provide maps of their services free of charge. Get them. Give them to your groundwork contractor before they start.
The Full Cost Picture
The headline meter relocation costs (gas + electric) are around £1,800-£2,300 for a typical domestic extension. But the real cost of poor coordination is higher.
On my build, the complete utility-related cost broke down like this:
- Gas meter relocation (SGN): £808.80 inc VAT
- Electric meter relocation (SSEN): £1,020.70 inc VAT
- Emergency gas pipe strike callout: £856.67
- Groundwork contractor for service trenches (bundled with drainage): £3,250.00
That last figure covered more than meter-related work: drainage and a soakaway that the main contractor never delivered. But the engagement would have been smaller or unnecessary if the service trenches had been dug as agreed eight months earlier.
Utility coordination done badly isn't just an inconvenience. It's several thousand pounds you hadn't budgeted for.
Meter Relocation Action Plan
Use this sequence for every extension:
1. Identify your GDN and DNO. Check your gas bill for the network operator, or use the Cadent/SGN postcode lookup. Check your electricity bill for the DNO, or use the Energy Networks Association postcode checker.
2. Contact both simultaneously. Don't do gas first and electricity second. Both have similar lead times. Start them in parallel.
3. Get written quotes. GDNs and DNOs provide written quotes before you pay. Read them. Specifically check: does the quote include trench digging, or is that your responsibility?
4. Confirm trench responsibility in your builder's scope. If the trench is the builder's job, write it into the contract with a completion date before the GDN/DNO arrival. Do not accept a verbal agreement.
5. Pay and book before groundwork starts. Not during. Not after. Before.
6. Get utility service maps before any excavation. Call your GDN and request maps of all gas services in the area before groundwork begins. Give them to your groundwork contractor. Require hand digging within 500mm of any marked service.
7. Confirm your contractor's PL insurance covers excavation work. Do this before the digger arrives on site.
The process isn't difficult. The lead times are what catch people. Start early, confirm responsibilities in writing, and the meter relocation will happen in the background while you're dealing with everything else on your pre-construction list.