Fire strategy fees vary more than almost any other consultancy cost on a project because the work varies from a fifteen-page document for a two-storey commercial unit to a multi-discipline engineering package with CFD modelling for a twenty-storey residential tower.
Below are realistic market ranges, what moves them and where the false economies are.
Indicative ranges
These are typical market ranges, not quotations. Every project is different and an accurate figure requires the actual drawings.
New build and extension
| Project | Typical range |
|---|---|
| Small simple commercial building or extension, single or two storey, prescriptive Approved Document B compliance | £1,500 to £3,500 |
| Medium commercial building, multi-storey, conventional design | £3,000 to £8,000 |
| Larger or more complex commercial, unusual occupancy, some design flexibility required | £7,000 to £18,000 |
| Large or complex projects: atria, phased evacuation, mixed use, significant departures | £15,000 to £40,000+ |
| Residential block, code-based design to BS 9991:2024, not higher-risk | £3,500 to £12,000 |
Higher-risk buildings
| Project | Typical range |
|---|---|
| Fire strategy for a Gateway 2 application, new higher-risk building | £12,000 to £45,000+ |
| Gateway 2 support beyond the strategy, including compliance statement input, fire and emergency file and responses to Regulator queries | Usually additional, often significant |
| Remediation or refurbishment of an existing higher-risk building | Highly variable, commonly £10,000 upwards |
Existing buildings
| Project | Typical range |
|---|---|
| Fire strategy review for a fit-out or minor alteration | £1,200 to £3,500 |
| Change of use, small to medium building | £2,500 to £8,000 |
| Change of use, larger or residential conversion | £6,000 to £20,000 |
| Retrospective fire strategy, small to medium commercial building | £2,500 to £7,000 |
| Retrospective fire strategy, large or complex building or one requiring extensive survey | £7,000 to £25,000+ |
Fire engineering, usually additional
| Analysis | Typical range |
|---|---|
| Evacuation modelling | £3,000 to £15,000 |
| CFD smoke movement modelling | £5,000 to £25,000+ |
| Structural fire engineering analysis | £5,000 to £30,000+ |
| Peer review of a third party's strategy | £1,500 to £6,000 |
Intrusive investigation on retrospective work is a separate cost again and brings contractor attendance, asbestos management and making good with it.
What drives the price
1. Building size and number of storeys
The obvious factor and the least interesting. A large simple building can be cheaper to strategise than a small complicated one.
2. Complexity of the design
Straightforward rectangular floor plates with clear escape routes are quick. Atria, open-plan volumes, unusual geometry, split levels, basements, mezzanines, courtyards and buildings wrapped around each other are not.
3. The compliance route
This is the single biggest lever.
- Prescriptive Approved Document B compliance is the cheapest because the parameters are tabulated
- Code-based design to BS 9999:2017 or BS 9991:2024 costs more because it requires establishing risk profiles, assessing occupancy characteristics and fire growth rates and justifying the parameters selected
- Fire engineering under BS 7974 is substantially more because it involves modelling and the analysis must be defensible under peer review
If your design can work within Approved Document B, use it. Design flexibility is genuinely available through BS 9999 and BS 9991 but it is not free.
4. Occupancy characteristic
Buildings where people sleep cost more to strategise. Under BS 9999, occupancy characteristic C, occupants likely to be asleep, carries tighter parameters than characteristic A, occupants awake and familiar. Care and healthcare occupancies are more demanding again and sit largely outside BS 9999's scope.
5. Height and regime
Height drives cost in steps rather than smoothly:
- Above eleven metres, external wall requirements bite on material change of use under regulation 6(1)(c) and residential fire door check duties apply under the Fire Safety (England) Regulations 2022
- Above 18 metres, regulation 7(2) external wall material requirements apply to relevant buildings and the higher-risk building regime engages for buildings with two or more residential units
- Higher-risk buildings bring the Gateway regime, prescribed documents and Building Safety Regulator scrutiny, which is a different order of work
6. New build versus existing
New build is cheaper per square metre because the design is documented and the strategy is developed alongside it.
Existing buildings cost more because the information has to be established rather than read. Measured survey, building control archive searches, sampling and sometimes intrusive investigation. The fee reflects investigation effort, not just document length.
7. Quality of available information
If you can supply current drawings, a previous strategy, the regulation 38 package, system commissioning certificates and a knowledgeable contact, the work is faster. If the drawings are the estate agent's floor plan from 2014, it is not.
8. Stage of engagement
Engaging a fire engineer at RIBA Stage 2 costs less overall than engaging one at Stage 4 to rationalise a design that has already been developed. Late engagement typically means either abortive design work, an expensive engineered justification for something a small early change would have avoided or a rejected building control submission.
This is the most reliable way to spend more than you needed to.
9. Building control interaction
Some fees cover the document only. Others include responding to building control queries, attending meetings and revising the strategy through the approval process. For higher-risk buildings, Regulator interaction can be substantial.
Ask what is included. A cheaper fee that excludes all post-submission engagement is not cheaper.
10. Design change
Strategies are living documents during a project. Significant design change means revision. Some consultants price a fixed number of revisions, others price time. Clarify which.
What should be included
A fire strategy fee should cover:
- Review of available information
- Survey, where the building exists
- The strategy document itself, covering design basis, occupancy, evacuation strategy, means of escape, compartmentation, detection and alarm, suppression, smoke control, external fire spread, fire service access and management assumptions
- Fire strategy drawings, showing compartment lines, escape routes, fire door locations and equipment
- Justification of any departures from prescriptive guidance
- Clear identification of what the design depends on
Confirm separately whether the fee includes: building control liaison, fire and rescue authority consultation responses, design change revisions, modelling and any input to the regulation 38 handover package.
Why the cheapest strategy is usually the most expensive
Four ways a cheap strategy costs money.
Rejection at building control. A generic document that does not match the drawings, does not justify departures or applies the wrong standard will be rejected. The cost is the resubmission fee plus the programme delay, which on any commercial project dwarfs the difference in fee. For Gateway 2, historic rejection rates have run at roughly 45% to 50% and delays have been measured in months.
Over-specification. A strategist who cannot or will not do the analysis defaults to the most conservative answer. Sprinklers where they were not required, additional stairs, unnecessary fire resistance periods, additional compartmentation. Those decisions cost far more in construction than any consultancy fee saved.
Under-specification. Discovered at completion or worse, in occupation. Remedying a fire safety deficiency in a finished building is an order of magnitude more expensive than designing it correctly.
Handover failure. A strategy that does not state its management assumptions leaves the responsible person operating a building on terms they do not know. Under regulation 38 they now have to formally acknowledge that the information received is sufficient. A weak strategy makes that acknowledgement difficult to give honestly.
Questions to ask before appointing
- Which compliance route do you propose and why?
- Which standard will be applied and will it be applied consistently rather than mixed?
- What is your assessment of the risk profile or occupancy characteristic for this building?
- Are fire strategy drawings included?
- Is building control liaison included and to what extent?
- How many design change revisions are included?
- Is any modelling anticipated and is it in or out of this fee?
- What are the qualifications of the person who will author the strategy and are they chartered?
- What professional indemnity insurance do you carry and to what limit?
- What will you need from us and by when?
Question 8 matters more than it looks. Fire engineering is not a regulated title in the way structural engineering is and the range of competence in the market is very wide.
A note on value
The fire strategy typically represents a fraction of a percent of construction cost. The decisions it contains determine stair numbers, compartment sizes, sprinkler provision and smoke control, each of which can move the construction budget by six figures.
The question is not whether the strategy fee is high. It is whether the strategy is good enough to make those decisions correctly.
Frequently asked questions
Why will you not publish a fixed price list? Because the work is not fixed. The same floor area can be a £2,000 job or a £30,000 job depending on occupancy, height, complexity and compliance route. We provide a fixed quotation once we have seen the drawings.
Is a fire strategy cheaper than a fire risk assessment? No. They are different exercises and a fire strategy is normally considerably more expensive because it is a design engineering document rather than an operational assessment.
Can I reuse a fire strategy from a similar building? No. Strategies are building-specific and a copied strategy that does not match the drawings is the most reliable way to be rejected by building control.
Do I need one for each phase of a project? The strategy should cover the whole development and be updated as the design develops. Where a Gateway 2 application is submitted in stages, each stage requires its own approval, which affects how the strategy is packaged.
How long does it take to produce? For a straightforward commercial building with good information, two to four weeks. For a complex building or one requiring survey and modelling, considerably longer. Build it into the programme rather than treating it as a last-minute submission item.
What if building control rejects it? A competent consultant should engage with the reviewer's comments and revise. Confirm before appointing whether that engagement is included in the fee or chargeable.
