Feasibility study fees by year (2022-2026)
A five-year retrospective for the canonical scope - Stage 0-2 multidisciplinary primary expansion, 1FE-2FE. Bands are anchored to the 2026 envelope and walked back through RICS BCIS Tender Price Index annual movements, then rounded to the GBP 500 band consultants were actually quoting.
Fee envelope by year - Stage 0-2 multidisciplinary primary (1FE-2FE)
| Year | Fee band (low - high) | Midpoint | BCIS All-in TPI (YoY) | Market note |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | GBP 14,500 - GBP 25,500 | GBP 20,000 | +9.8% | Post-pandemic spike; specialist availability the binding constraint, not day rate. |
| 2023 | GBP 16,000 - GBP 28,000 | GBP 22,000 | +4.6% | Inflation passing through to consultant day rates; net-zero retrofit briefs add 10-15%. |
| 2024 | GBP 17,000 - GBP 29,500 | GBP 23,250 | +2.1% | Market cooling; CIF Round announcements pull demand forward into Q4. |
| 2025 | GBP 17,500 - GBP 30,500 | GBP 24,000 | +2.4% | Labour-led, not materials-led; QS and structural day rates lead the rise. |
| 2026 | GBP 18,500 - GBP 32,500 | GBP 25,500 | +2.0% | Current. CIF 2026-27 round driving the largest cohort; bursars commissioning in spring for autumn submission. |
Cumulative drift 2022 to 2026 on this scope: midpoint GBP 20,000 to GBP 25,500, a 27.5% nominal increase over four years. That is in line with the cumulative BCIS All-in TPI movement over the same window (approximately +21.4% compounded) plus a 5-6% scope-creep premium - briefs in 2026 now routinely require an embodied-carbon line and a net-zero in-use narrative that briefs in 2022 did not.
Method
The 2026 band (GBP 18,500 - GBP 32,500) is the canonical anchor and matches the row on the main /fee-benchmarks table. Prior-year bands are calculated by dividing the 2026 anchor by the cumulative BCIS All-in TPI factor back to that year, then rounded to the nearest GBP 500 the consultant market was actually quoting. The midpoint column is the simple arithmetic average of low and high - we do not weight it, because real engagements bunch toward the midpoint only for typical scope and the high end fills out fast once the brief carries net-zero retrofit or a SEN unit.
BCIS All-in TPI is the right index for this purpose because it captures consultant day rates and prelims, not just materials - feasibility fees are essentially day-rate work and track labour, not steel or concrete. The PUBSEC index is sometimes preferred for public works but lags by two quarters and is dominated by main-contractor cost; it is the wrong instrument for consultant fees.
Caveats
These are bands for the most-commissioned scope only. Secondary refurbishment, SEN units and Stage 0-3 spans run materially higher and have their own drift profile; see by school type and by team composition. The 2022 and 2023 bands carry a wider real-world spread than shown - specialist availability, not day rate, was the binding constraint in those years and trusts paid 10-15% above the band where the only available team carried structural and M&E in-house.