New Year, new guideline hourly rates!

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The Master of the Rolls, Sir Geoffrey Vos, has confirmed an update to Guideline Hourly Rates (GHR) for solicitors, taking effect from Thursday 1 January 2026.

The announcement follows a wider strategic review of legal costs commissioned in 2022, aimed at ensuring that guideline rates better reflect economic conditions and the realities of modern legal practice.

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What’s changing?

In January 2024, guideline hourly rates were uplifted by 6.66%, using Service Producer Price Inflation (SPPI) data covering Q1 2022 to Q1 2023.

The latest update applies more recent SPPI figures, covering the period up to Q1 2025. As a result, the uplift from the 2025 rates to the new 2026 rates amounts to a further 2.28% increase.

While more modest than the previous adjustment, this increase remains significant — particularly for firms managing high-value, long-running or costs-sensitive litigation, where recoverability and margin protection matter.

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The 2026 rates

The revised 2026 Guideline Hourly Rates, broken down by grade and location, are set out in the table below.

The table highlights how the uplift applies across fee earner grades and regions, and where the impact is likely to be felt most in practice.

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What’s coming next?

Sir Geoffrey Vos also confirmed that the Civil Justice Council has established a working group to consider whether:

• Guideline rates should be produced for counsel’s fees, and/or
• A new top rate should be introduced for complex commercial work.

An interim report is expected later this year, which could signal more fundamental change to the guideline rate framework — not just inflationary updates.

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The takeaway

Guideline rates continue to evolve, and firms that treat costs as a strategic issue from day one, rather than an end-of-case exercise, will be best placed to manage risk, protect profitability and avoid unnecessary write-offs.

At Peak Costs, we’re tracking these developments closely and helping clients understand what the changes mean in real terms — not just on paper.

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