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Building control surveyor : Salary and conditions

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  1. Job description
  2. Salary and conditions
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  4. Training
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Case studies

  • The average starting salary for a building control surveyor is £21,588 (£23,923 for London). Incentives are an integral part of remuneration packages, with over 50% of companies offering benefits schemes including pension, healthcare and childcare vouchers and training support. 
  • Average salary with up to four years of experience: £30,514.
  • Average salary with up to ten years of experience: £41,810.
  • Average partner or director salary: £73,137. Principal surveyors or heads of service can earn considerably more.
  • Salaries vary considerably according to the location, sector and size of the employing organisation, with salaries normally higher in London. Local authority salaries are comparable and may include a final salary pension scheme.
  • Surveyors in local authorities normally work a 35 to 37-hour week, Monday to Friday, with flexi-time generally being available. Working hours in the private sector may vary, with some weekend working.
  • The work is both office based and conducted on site. Site visits and inspections are conducted outside in all weathers.
  • There may be considerable travel within a working day, although absence from home overnight is uncommon. A company car is not usually offered, but mileage for site visits may be payable.
  • Self-employment and freelance work are possible but not widespread. If you have both full corporate membership of a professional body and extensive work experience, you may operate as a non-corporate approved inspector. Part-time work or career breaks may be possible.
  • In 2008 a decision was taken by a RICS member board to mainstream the Raising the Ratio initiative (created to increase the number of females in the profession) and create a mainstream of RICS ‘inclusivity’ agenda to ensure that there are no barriers to becoming a chartered surveyor whether those barriers be gender, age, disability, race or other.
  • Opportunities exist throughout the UK. A surveyor usually has responsibility for a specific geographical area.
  • The dress code tends to be conservative, and surveyors are expected to be smartly dressed even when visiting sites.
  • A reasonable level of fitness and mobility is required as the work can be physically demanding. Site inspections may involve climbing ladders and scaffolding to examine roofs and climbing down into excavated areas to check foundations and drains.
 
AGCAS
Written by Lorraine Pitman, Robert Gordon University
Date: 
April 2011
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