Areas we cover
Electricians in Essex
We work in the nine Essex towns listed on this page rather than across the whole county, from the post-war new towns of Harlow and Basildon to Chelmsford, Colchester and the coast at Southend-on-Sea and Clacton-on-Sea. Ask us about a fault, an inspection, new circuits for an extension or maintenance in a commercial unit: send your postcode and a short description, and we will tell you whether we can take the job on.
Towns
Towns we list in Essex
Post-war new towns, older city and market-town centres, and seaside towns that grew up in Victorian and Edwardian times, with business estates on the edges of the larger towns.
Most of Essex has two tiers of local government. Essex County Council runs county-wide services, while most planning applications and building control are handled by the city, borough and district councils shown against each town: Witham comes under Braintree District, and Clacton-on-Sea and Frinton-on-Sea under Tendring. Southend-on-Sea, like Thurrock, is a unitary authority, so Southend-on-Sea City Council does both jobs. Thurrock itself is not among the towns we list, and nor is Brentwood.
Chelmsford
- ChelmsfordCM
Colchester
- ColchesterCO
Basildon
- BasildonSS
Southend-on-Sea
- Southend-on-SeaSS
Harlow
- HarlowCM
Braintree
- BraintreeCM
- WithamCM
Tendring
- Clacton-on-SeaCO
- Frinton-on-SeaCO
Explained
When to bring the electrician into an extension
An extension goes up in a set order, and the electrical work slots in at six points along the way. Miss one and a late change usually means undoing someone else’s work: reopening a trench, taking down a ceiling or cutting into new plaster.
Select a numbered part to highlight it on the drawing.
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Mark the sockets, switches, lights and fixed appliances on the plan, including where the kitchen units and any wall-mounted television will go. A look at the existing consumer unit, earthing and supply at this stage shows whether anything there needs changing before the build relies on it.
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If the new walls would sit over the incoming supply cable or enclose the meter box, your network operator and energy supplier need to be involved, and their work has to be arranged well before building starts. Ducts for any cables out to the garden go in while the ground is open.
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With the roof on and the blockwork still bare, cables are run and back boxes fixed. Each cable drops vertically to its box or runs level between boxes: the routes that anyone drilling into the wall later will assume.
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Once the boards and plaster are on, moving a socket means cutting into a new wall. Walk round with your builder first, check each position against the plan and photograph the cable routes for your records. Where building control is handling the electrical work, find out whether its inspector wants to see the cables before they disappear.
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Accessories and light fittings go on once the walls are finished and, in a kitchen, once the units and worktops are in, so the sockets line up with the worktop. Only then are the new circuits connected at the board.
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Testing covers the new circuits and the parts of the existing installation they depend on, such as the earthing and bonding. The results go on an Electrical Installation Certificate, issued to whoever ordered the work, and notifiable work is notified to building control by the route agreed at the start.
Local guide
Planning permission and building control in Essex
Planning permission and Building Regulations approval are separate decisions under separate rules: one is about what you build and where, the other about how it is built. This is an outline for England, with the Essex councils in mind; your council, or your building control body, has the final word on your project.
- Which council
- The towns on this page are grouped by council area. Boundaries do not always follow postcodes or town names, so check your exact address with the GOV.UK council finder, linked below, before you apply.
- Planning permission
- Some house extensions can be built under permitted development rights, without a planning application, within limits on size, height, position and materials. Flats and maisonettes do not have these rights, and in a conservation area they are narrower. For certainty before you build, you can apply to the council for a lawful development certificate.
- Building Regulations approval
- Most extensions need it, whether or not they need planning permission. You can apply to the council’s building control service, with full plans or a building notice, or use a registered building control approver instead. Either way, the work is inspected at stages as it goes up.
- The electrical work
- Part P of the Building Regulations makes some electrical work in homes notifiable: a new circuit, a replacement consumer unit and some work close to a bath or shower. On an extension there are two usual routes. The electrician self-certifies the work through a competent person scheme they belong to, or the electrical work is included in the building control application you are already making. Agree which before first fix, and tell your building control body.
- Listed buildings
- Older town centres, Colchester’s in particular, have many listed buildings. Extending a listed building normally needs listed building consent, whether or not it needs planning permission, and consent can also be needed for work inside, new cable routes included, where it affects the building’s character. Historic England’s National Heritage List shows whether a building is listed; the council can tell you whether it is in a conservation area.
- Completion
- When the work is signed off, the council issues a completion certificate, or a registered building control approver issues a final certificate. That certificate, the Electrical Installation Certificate and any Building Regulations compliance certificate for the electrical work are the papers a buyer’s solicitor will normally ask to see.
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Harlow and Basildon
Both were built as new towns after the Second World War, with whole neighbourhoods finished within a few years. Houses that started out the same have since been extended, knocked through and rewired, or not, by successive owners, so the house next door is no guide to yours. Before new circuits go in, testing what is already there shows what the new work will connect to.
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Near the sea
Southend-on-Sea looks out over the Thames estuary, and Clacton-on-Sea and Frinton-on-Sea face the North Sea. On an exposed wall a fitting can keep the water out and still corrode: its IP rating describes protection against dust and water, not resistance to salt, so the housing, screws and brackets need choosing for the position as well. If you ask about an outside light or socket, tell us which way the wall faces and how exposed it is.
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Commercial and industrial units
Basildon, Harlow and Chelmsford all have large business and industrial areas. For work in a unit on one of them, the details that shape the quote are your opening hours, who holds the keys to the main switch or intake room, anything that must stay powered, and whether your lease needs the landlord’s consent before the installation is altered.
Contacts
Who to contact for what
Not every problem is one for an electrician. Start with the right people.
| If you need | Contact |
|---|---|
| Power cut or damaged supply equipment | Call 105 Your network operator |
| You smell gas | 0800 111 999 National Gas Emergency Service |
| Fire, smoke or someone injured | 999 Emergency services |
| A faulty meter, or a meter that needs moving for building work | Your energy supplier (named on your bill) |
| Planning permission and building control | Find your local council (opens in a new tab) Your city, borough or district council (Southend-on-Sea City Council in Southend) |
| Checking whether a building is listed | Search the List (opens in a new tab) Historic England (National Heritage List for England) |
| An electrical fault, an inspection or new work in your property | Contact us DualCurrent |
Often asked for in Essex
- Commercial property maintenance Planned and reactive electrical maintenance for shops, offices and managed buildings.
- Extensions and shop fittings Electrical work for extensions, conversions and retail fit-outs, coordinated with your builder.
- Electrical compliance and safety testing Inspection, testing, reports and remedial work so you know where your installation stands.
- Fault finding and troubleshooting Tracing the cause of tripping, flickering, dead sockets and intermittent faults, so it can be put right.
Questions from Essex
- The house we are buying has been extended. What electrical paperwork should the seller have?
- The building control completion certificate (or final certificate) for the extension, and the Electrical Installation Certificate for its new circuits. If the electrical work was done since 2005 by an installer registered with a competent person scheme, there should also be a Building Regulations compliance certificate for it. Your conveyancer will normally ask the seller for these, and can advise if any are missing. An Electrical Installation Condition Report (EICR) shows the present state of the installation, but it does not take the place of those certificates.
- Building control is already inspecting our extension. Do we still need an electrical certificate?
- Yes. Building control checks the project against the Building Regulations. The Electrical Installation Certificate is the installer’s record of how the new circuits were designed, installed and tested, and it is what the next electrician to work on them, or a buyer, will look for.
- I rent from the council or a housing association. Who deals with an electrical fault?
- Use your landlord’s repairs line, by phone or online, and keep the reference you are given. A council or housing association normally arranges and pays for repairs to the wiring, sockets, switches and consumer unit in your home, through its own contractors. Since 2025 the electrical safety regulations for rented homes also cover social housing, so your landlord has to have the installation inspected at least every five years and give you a copy of the report. Fire, smoke, an electric shock or an injury is a 999 call before anything else.
Next step
Tell us about the job
Include the postcode and a short description. We will contact you to talk it through and tell you whether and when we can help. Nothing is booked until you have a written quote and have accepted it.
Call or email us for a free quote
Tell us the postcode and a little about the job. We will contact you to discuss it, and you get a written quote before any work starts. Quotes are free. Some survey or diagnostic visits may be charged: ask when you book.
Our email address: support@dualcurrent.co.uk
Helpful to include
- The postcode of the property
- What the job is, or what is going wrong
- Photos, if you have them, taken without removing any covers