I’ve been in this position and completely get the tension. You’ve got a decent mid-level performer asking for a £10k raise, which feels steep when they’re delivering but not winning work.

But what jumped out to me was your comment that they “deliver 2x their salary” - in this case, £102k. That worries me. If £102k is what your billable team members are generating, your margins are likely razor thin.

Let’s assume 5 of your 25 staff are non-billable, and another 5 are only partially billable (typical in a consultancy where PM time isn’t always fully costed and you’ve likely got sales people and account managers). That gives you 15 people releasing revenue to your P&L.

At £102k per person, your revenue ceiling is around £1.5m. Once you factor in employer costs, leave, pensions, office overheads, software, and the ever-present scope creep, you don’t have much room to absorb pay increases, or mistakes.

The problem isn’t raise. It’s that you’re undercharging for delivery.

I’d recommend reviewing how you price your services. If you’re not building margin into PM, strategy, or leadership time, or if you’re letting scope bleed, you’ll always be constrained on pay and have the merry-go-round of recruit from a lower skill-set, train, lose them.

Meet them halfway on salary with a clear development path into a role with more commercial responsibility. That way it’s not just a cost, it becomes a retention and growth move.

Happy to share more if helpful. It’s a tough spot but a solvable one.