Quantity and Cost Calculation - The UK Perspective

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Cost and Quantity the UK Perspective

Ashley Wyatt, Director of Building Design + Management (UK) Ltd. (BD+M) explains in this interview the impact that quantity and cost calculation has on British architectural practices.

		How do you assess the current importance of cost calculation/ planning of construction projects for architects and engineers in Great Britain?
		I believe it is critically important to plan projects including costs accurately. I see our profession time and again failing to do this properly at the appropriate stage. Even large high profile projects have a bad record of spiralling costs.

		How do you manage/assess tendering, cost-estimation, cost-planning issues in your company?
		So important do we consider cost planning, that we invariably employ a cost consultant to advise our Clients. We see this as a very specialised area.

What is the average construction cost deviation of your projects?

At our level of construction cost, this type of analysis is rarely adopted. We would expect our projects to come within budget but our budgets are conservative with reasonable contingency levels built in.

Which key aspects do architects and engineers have to take into consideration regarding quantity and cost calculations?

Insufficient focus is placed upon the project costs favouring to concentrate on construction costs alone. Statutory charges, VAT, disbursements, fees, fitting-out etc are also significant cost factors.

What are in your opinion the most common reasons for cost calculation errors?

Plain and simple, the Client is not advised very well. There is no ‘standard’ method of presenting a thorough cost plan to the Client by the Architect. A good Cost Consultant is hard to find also. The Client almost always focuses on the later activities of a programme, for example, the construction period and the important and necessary earlier stages in which to plan properly are virtually ignored.

What constitutes the competitive edge using integrated software solutions?

Speed and accuracy and for our Clients to see that we have used due diligence whilst preparing our work.

How will the topic of cost planning and quantity determination evolve throughout the upcoming five years?

Technology is key but even as projects become even more complex, perhaps due to the development of ‘brown field’ sites which may be contaminated and littered with services, costs will spiral out-of-control if not properly managed. However, I don’t see much progress in five years. Our industry is very fragmented and very little interoperability between consultants and contractors exists. Mistakes continue to happen. Co-ordination is key but many smaller sub-contract specialist firms too slowly embrace the technology. These firms will continue to be used whilst they provide a competitive product. So the industry is dumbed down to the lowest common denominator.

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