Last updated October 2026
Wetpour under London play equipment typically runs from about £40 to £140 per m2 before VAT, and Sport England benchmarks a fenced, floodlit macadam MUGA at £190,000 before regional costs, which push London higher. What moves a London price most is rarely the surface: it is the borough, the access and the time a vehicle can stand outside. Send photos and a site plan and the team books a survey.
| London job | Typical price, ex VAT | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Wetpour under equipment | £40 to £140 per m2 | Supplier price list, 2026 |
| New fenced, lit MUGA (782 m2) | £190,000 | Sport England, Q4 2025 |
| MUGA resurfacing | about £36 per m2 | Council quotes, 2025 |
How big does a play area on a new London development have to be?
The GLA’s calculator sets it, at 10 sq m of play space for every child the scheme is expected to house. Space for under-5s and 5 to 11 year olds is expected on site, while play for children of 12 and over can sometimes be met off site within about 400 metres, paid for through CIL or a section 106 agreement. For a developer, that means the play area’s size, and so its surfacing budget, is fixed by the planning stage, not by the landscape architect’s first sketch. Send us the calculator output with the drawings and we price each zone separately.
Does Green Belt affect a court or pitch in London?
In the outer boroughs it can. Government figures for March 2025 put 34,780 hectares of London in the Green Belt, 22.1% of its land, much of it school playing fields, club grounds and parkland at the edges. National policy allows facilities for outdoor sport there as long as they preserve openness, so it is new high fencing or floodlights that get the closer look. Our planning guide for courts and pitches explains the test.
How long is a London park court closed for repainting?
Plan for a week or more, weather permitting. When Barking and Dagenham finished its £402,817 upgrade in 2024 of 17 courts across five parks, the colour spray and line marking were booked for one late-June week and the courts stayed shut for several days afterwards while the coating cured. Acrylic colour needs dry, mild days, so a London club or school should book repainting for late spring or summer and keep a fallback week in the diary.
Should a borough use the LTA park programme before paying for court works?
Check it first. Wandsworth reopened 10 renewed courts at Barn Elms in August 2025 under the Government and LTA Tennis Foundation’s Park Tennis Project, with resurfacing, new fencing, nets and a gate system. Where a council’s courts qualify, the programme may carry most of the cost. Courts outside it, such as school, housing estate or private club courts, are priced by us from survey; our tennis court construction page covers new builds.
What do ULEZ and parking add to a London job?
A daily line on the quote. The Ultra Low Emission Zone covers every borough around the clock, and a non-compliant van up to 3.5 tonnes pays £12.50 a day. Parking is set borough by borough: in Camden, for example, a trade permit covers resident bays and single yellow lines inside the job’s own controlled zone, never paid bays. On a three-week MUGA build those costs add up, so we ask where a vehicle can stand before pricing.
Sources
- Lichfields, London’s play space requirements, Nov 2023
- MHCLG, local authority Green Belt statistics 2024 to 2025, Oct 2025
- NPPF, protecting Green Belt land (paragraph 154), read Oct 2026
- Barking and Dagenham Council, tennis court project, June 2024
- Wandsworth Council, Barn Elms tennis courts reopen, Aug 2025
- TfL, Ultra Low Emission Zone, read Oct 2026
- Camden Council, trade permits, read Oct 2026
How it works
- 01Send a plan and photosThe site, the surface and the date it must reopen.
- 02We check the groundLevels and where the water drains.
- 03Written quoteBuilt around your reopening date.
Can a school MUGA go on an old London tarmac playground?
Usually, as long as the old tarmac is sound and drains. Where an inner London school has no spare grass, the MUGA goes on the existing yard and the base is reused, which saves skip lorries and muck-away trips through permit zones. Our MUGA page sets out sizes, surfaces and fencing.
Can several London sites go into one quote?
Yes. A trust or housing provider with play areas in, say, Lambeth, Newham and Haringey gets one survey round and a line per site, with each borough’s parking and permit cost shown against its own site. All our sourced bands sit on the costs page .
Who runs a London job?
We arrange a vetted local surfacing contractor for London jobs. We confirm who within 2 working days, or tell you if we can’t. Alex Winser stays your single contact from the first call to handover, and the written quote names who does the work before anything is booked.