Willis's Practice and Procedure for the Quantity Surveyor

Allan Ashworth, Keith Hogg, Catherine Higgs, Catherine Higgs

• Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell
• Year: 2013
• Print ISBN: 9780470672198
• eBook ISBN: 9781118589960
• Edition: 13
• Topic: Technology & Engineering
• Subtopic: Technology & Engineering Research & Skills
• Index: Technology & Engineering

Historically employed to estimate and measure the likely material requirements for any building project, the role of the modern quantity surveyor is diverse, with a wide range of employers and geographical locations to match. Change continues to be a feature in quantity surveying practice, with the New Rules of Measurement, the RICS Black Book and Building Information Modelling (BIM) all adding to the already dynamic environment in which the Quantity Surveyor operates.  This new edition of Practice and Procedure for the Quantity Surveyor reflects that dynamic environment, addressing changing practices and procedures in the profession, whilst focussing on the core skills which are essential to success.

The 13^th edition of this classic text, originally written by three generations of the Willis family (all quantity surveyors) continues to provide a thorough introduction to the work of the quantity surveyor in private practice, in public service and in contracting organisations.

1

The Work of the Quantity Surveyor

Introduction

In 1971, the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) published a report titled The Future Role of the Quantity Surveyor, which defined the work of the quantity surveyor as:

‘…ensuring that the resources of the construction industry are utilised to the best advantage of society by providing, inter alia, the financial management for projects and a cost consultancy service to the client and designer during the whole construction process.’

The report sought to identify the distinctive competencies or skills of the quantity surveyor associated with measurement and valuation in the wider aspects of the construction industry. This provides the basis for the proper cost management of the construction project in the context of forecasting, analysing, planning, ­controlling and accounting. Many reading this will reflect that this is no longer an adequate description of the work of the quantity surveyor.

From the 1970s onwards, the profession began to evolve rapidly, and in 1983 the RICS prepared another report that would explore further the work of the quantity surveyor and at the same time attempt to assess its future potential and directions. This report, The Future Role of the Chartered Quantity Surveyor, identified a range of skills, knowledge and expertise provided by the quantity surveyor and indicated a greater expansion of possible services that could be provided both inside and ­outside of the construction industry. This report began to examine the changing and shifting scene, the requirements of clients, their dissatisfaction with the services provided by construction professionals generally, and their frequent ­disappointment with the products that they received.

Almost ten years later, in 1991, the Davis, Langdon and Everest consultancy group produced QS2000 on behalf of the RICS. This report began to describe the threats and opportunities that were facing the profession at the end of the twentieth century. Again, its key message related to change and in ensuring the services ­provided recognised that the status quo no longer applied. Clients were demanding more for their fees. Fee scales for their services had been abandoned many years earlier and were continuing to fall. This in itself was sufficient for quantity ­surveyors to examine their role and work in the construction industry. The changes identified in this report included:

• Changes in markets. It outlined the previous performance and trends in ­workloads across the different sectors and the importance of the changing international scene, particularly the challenges arising from the deepening European Union.
• Changes in the construction industry. The changing nature of contracting has placed an emphasis upon management of construction, the comparison with other countries abroad and the competition being offered from non-construction professionals.
• Changes in client needs. An emphasis in terms of the value added to the client’s business; they want purchaseable design, procurement and management of ­construction. Many now want the long-term view beyond the initial design and construction phase.
• Changes in the profession. It noted employment patterns, the growth in graduate members, the impact of fee competition, the ways in which the quantity ­surveyor is now appointed, and changes in their role and practice with changing attitudes and horizons.

Towards the end of that decade, the former Quantity Surveyor’s Division of the RICS produced a report titled The Challenge of Change (Powell 1998). This report provided stark warnings to the profession, almost as a final warning that if the ­profession did not adapt to change in the light of the changing attitudes of clients, pressures from the business world, the execution of projects, requirements of the skill base and the impact of information and technology, then it would not exist in the future. This would also be the last report from the Quantity Surveyor’s Division, since this marked the end of the divisional structure within the RICS.

In the decade following the publication of these reports, quantity surveying has continued to respond to the changes identified in QS2000. Advances in ICT have had a profound impact on how quantity surveyors operate, their function and the scope and breath of the services they provide. Large practices have responded to the needs of a global market and, over the last decade, there has been an increase in both multidisciplinary and multinational surveying organisations. An increase in niche market provision has also been seen.

Quantity surveying practices have diversified in response to government strategies; the most influential being those that address reducing greenhouse gases and improving efficiency within the industry.

A changing industry

The prospects of the construction industry are intrinsically linked to those of a ­country’s economy. In times of recession, the industry’s major employers are ­reluctant to invest and this has an immediate knock-on effect on the fortunes or otherwise of the construction industry. As a proportion of GDP, the output of the construction industry in the United Kingdom has been comparatively stable at about 8%. Currently (2011) it represents 7% of GDP. Construction output is ­considerably more if whole life contributions through planning, design, ­construction, maintenance, decommissioning and re-use are also taken into account. The ­construction industry, for example, has not suffered the considerable and terminal decline of engineering, especially ship building and coal mining.

However, the industry is changing shape. As a result of privatisations over the past 20 years the share of the public sector’s construction portfolio has been ­considerably reduced. At its peak in the 1970s, this represented almost 50%; it is now 40%. Coupled with this have been strategic changes in the procurement of public sector building and civil engineering projects, for example through the Private Finance Initiative (PFI). This has assisted the industry to refocus on longer-term measures, such as the consideration of whole life costing. There is also the continued dominance of design and build, a trend that is likely to continue.

In 1994, the Latham Report, Constructing the Team, was published with far ­reaching consequences for the construction industry and those employed in it, including quantity surveyors. Its chief aim was to attempt to change the culture of the ­industry and thus increase the performance of construction activities and the final product. For example, it drew comparisons with motor car manufacturing and how this had changed to improve the product for the customer. By comparison, the construction industry had not changed significantly or fast enough and was being regarded by some as little more than a handicraft industry (Harvey & Ashworth 1997). Other reports followed with similar and uncomfortable themes. These included a report by the Royal Academy of Engineering (Barlow 1996) and Rethinking Construction (Egan 1998). In order to achieve the objectives set out in the above reports, the whole design and construction process, including the work of the quantity surveyor, needed to be re-engineered. Large British contracting firms would also copy the car industry: fewer of them and foreign owned. More mergers and acquisitions are on the horizon.

The National Audit Office provided yet a further review of the construction industry in a report titled Modernising Construction (2001). This report focuses on procurement and the delivery of construction projects in the United Kingdom and how the process can be modernised. This has yet further implications for the way in which quantity surveyors carry out their work in advising and assisting clients of the industry. This report also highlights the need for major savings and repeats the 30% reduction in the costs of construction from the Latham Report. Some of the main recommendations from the Report are:

• Collaboration
• Competition
• Appropriate risk sharing
• Value for money
• Clear understanding of the project’s requirements
• Transparency in respect of costs and profits
• Clearly understood rights and obligations
• Appropriate incentives
• Early involvement of the whole construction team
• Operational efficiency of completed buildings.

The report places an important emphasis on making greater use of innovation, ­disseminating good practices more widely, and actively measuring improvements in construction performance.

The construction industry is continuing to go through major change that is being driven by government, regular-procuring clients and initiatives outlined in the reports noted above.

Accelerating Change (Egan 2002) reaffirmed the principles set out in Rethinking Construction and sought to address barriers to progress and identify ways to ­accelerate the rate of change. It promoted procurement decisions based on value for money against world-class benchmarks delivered by competent integrated teams. Notably, it identified sustainability as a driver for change and recognised the strategic ­contribution of sustainability as integral to addressing the issues within the industry. The report also addressed the need for greater integration and collaboration.

Subsequent government initiatives, such as the Strategy for Sustainable Construction (2008) and the Government Construction Strategy (2011) reinforced the importance to the construction industry of meeting the targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions and the implementation of Building Information Modelling. The latter will have a profound impact on the culture of the industry; though primarily ­considered a ­technology matter it will become a key driver in implementing ­collaborate working.

Characteristics of the construction industry

The total value of the construction output in the UK is 7% of GDP or £110bn per annum of expenditure of which 40% is public sector work. The industry offers direct employment to around two million people and to others in supporting occupations. In ­addition, many UK firms and practices, including quantity surveyors, have an ­international ­perspective through offices overseas or through associations with firms abroad. There has, for example, been an increasing and expanding role of activities on mainland Europe. Approximately 80% of the UK workload is on ­building ­projects as distinct from ­engineering and infrastructure works. New ­construction projects account for about 64% of the workload of the industry (2012). The repair and ­maintenance ­sector will remain an important component for the foreseeable future as clients place greater emphasis upon the improved long-term management of such major capital assets.

The industry is characterised by the following:

• The physical nature of the product
• The product is normally manufactured on the client’s premises, i.e. the ­construction site
• Many of its projects are one-off designs in the absence of a prototype model
• The traditional arrangement separates design from manufacture
• It produces investment rather than consumer goods
• It is subject to wider swings of activity than most other industries
• Its activities are affected by the vagaries of the weather
• Its processes include a complex mixture of different materials, skills and trades
• Typically, throughout the world, it includes a small number of relatively large construction firms and a very large number of small firms
• The smaller firms tend to concentrate on repair and maintenance.

There have been recent developments in procurement management, supply chain management and the management of projects. In the case of PFI (private finance initiative) projects, the management of the asset becomes the financial ­responsibility of the consortium involved in the initial design and construction. PFI has allowed public clients to build many projects, including health, education and road and rail infrastructure projects that otherwise might never have been envisaged. Some ­commentators suggest that, prior to the economic downturn, one of the reasons for the sustained growth in the construction industry is due at least in part to the PFI concepts. PFI allows for continuity and integrity of ­delivery and maintenance. This at least should provide for a greater consideration of long-term needs and benefits to clients. PFI, together with the sustainability agenda, is one of the reasons for ­current interest, development and application of whole life costing. PFI is also ­driving a longer-term view of capital investment, with a greater appreciation of value for money, a greater understanding of risk, finance and taxation.

PFI specifies a method, developed initially by the UK government, to provide financial support for public–private partnerships (PPPs) between the public and ­private sectors. This process has now been adopted in several countries overseas, for example Canada, France, the Netherlands, Norway, Australia, Japan and Singapore, as part of a wider reform programme for the delivery of public ­services which is driven by the World Trade Organisation (WTO), I...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title page
• Copyright page
• Preface
• 1 The Work of the Quantity Surveyor
• 2 Education, Training and Employment
• 3 Organisation and Management
• 4 The Quantity Surveyor and the Law
• 5 Research and Innovation
• 6 Cost Control
• 7 Whole Life Costing
• 8 Value Management
• 9 Risk Management
• 10 Procurement
• 11 Contract Documentation
• 12 Preparation of Contract Bills
• 13 Cost Management
• 14 Final Accounts
• 15 Insolvency
• 16 Contractual Disputes
• 17 Project Management
• 18 Facilities Management
• 19 Emergent Themes: Sustainability and BIM
• Index