Fee scales - the debate

Leading QS Steve Barker has called for the return of traditional fee scales so that consultants can improve service and training in the sector.

In his first column for QS News, the RLF senior partner claimed the standing of the profession was under threat due to competitive fee bidding.

He called for part of the fee to be taken as a training levy to support new talent coming into the profession. He wrote: "I believe it is time to reintroduce fee scales... so that firms are once more competing on their knowledge and expertise, rather than haggling over the first past the post system." Barker proposed the creation of a review body to set the scales, separate to the RICS, which would sit every three years and set the scales.

Barker said the present competitive fee bidding process could give rise to poor service from less qualified members of staff "who are employed to ensure that profit is made on a project, often at the expense of a client's requirement".

There are real problems with people over-trading

Graham Clark, managing director, Millbridge

Barker's plea was backed by construction faculty chairman Michael Byng, who said that RICS' regulatory remit should ensure companies offered a good service.

Byng said: "There has to be a yardstick to measure service and competence. It's a free-for-all right now with massive fee bidding going on." Byng said that firms tendering cheap bids risked getting into a "vicious circle" that would lead them to reduce training for staff and reduce the quality of their service.

Other QSs and project managers agreed that competitive fee bidding was getting out of control. Graham Clark, managing director at project management firm Millbridge, said the industry was facing a "real crisis" over bidding. "There are real problems with people over-trading," he said. "Assistants are doing the work that was traditionally done by associates or partners. It's a time bomb."

It is time to reintroduce fee scales... so that firms are once more competing on their knowledge

Steve Barker, senior partner, RLF

Clark claimed it would be unrealistic for the industry to return to fee scales. "The industry is far too fragmented. I think it would be too prescriptive having scales and the services are no so varied."

Clark said his firm would be undertaking research into the levels of fees across different sectors. "I'm convinced there will be no trends. It will show a very random and disparate picture and will prove how far we have gone since fee scales went out. It becomes confusing for clients. They never get a feel for what fees should be."