New Aspects of Quantity Surveying Practice

This book was written by a quantity surveyor aiming to salvage the image of his profession and prove its worth following predictions of its demise. The first edition of the book was published in 2002, and the second edition in 2006. In the preface to the first edition, the author states: ‘This book . is dedicated to the process of transforming the popular perception that . the quantity surveyor is wedded to a policy of advocating aggressive price-led tendering . to one of a professional who can help deliver high-value capital projects on time and to budget with guaranteed life cycle costs’ (p. xiv). Quantity surveying has even been under pressure from its professional organization, the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS). In the preface to the third edition the author notes that ‘. quantity surveyors feel unloved not least by their professional institution, the RICS’ (p. xvii). He cites two instances: in 2010, quantity surveyors threatened to leave the RICS in response to the introduction of AssocRICS, a new grade of membership which they felt would lower entry standards to the institution; and the change from the traditional division of the professions under the RICS into faculties (in 2000) which saw the disappearance of quantity surveying as a faculty, and led to court action by some members against the institution, and a subsequent restructuring of the faculties. Cartlidge’s (2011) book follows a long tradition of texts that seek to provide an introduction to the work of the quantity surveyor to students and newly qualified surveyors. Three generations of the Willis family have been associated with the classic text. The ninth edition (Willis et al., 1994) included new coverage of project management, legal developments, computer applications, the role of the quantity surveyor in a contracting firm, and new services for clients. The 12th edition (Ashworth and Hogg, 2007) included quantity surveying work in civil and cost engineering, commercial management, the private-finance initiative (PFI) and professional ethics. Other books include those which had described existing practice such as Seeley (1997) and those which also sought to anticipate the future, such as Brandon (1992). The implications of particular new subjects for quantity surveyors have also been covered, as in the consideration of value management by Kelly and Male (1988). The RICS has commissioned many studies on the subject, such as that by Davis Langdon and Everest Consultancy (1991). In Chapter 1 of Cartlidge’s (2011) book, entitled ‘The story so far’, the author notes that the quantity surveyor has been part of the construction industry in the UK for 170 years. The profession’s ‘golden age’ was in 1950–80 ‘when bills of quantities were the preferred basis for tender documentation and the RICS scales of fees were generous and unchallenged’ (p. 1). The situation changed drastically ‘as a client-led crusade for value for money and leaner project completion times and procurement strategies placed new demands on the construction industry’ (p. 1). The differences between the traditional large quantity surveying firms of the late 1970s and the current ones are largely ‘the elevation of client focus and business understanding, and the move by quantity surveyors to develop clients’ business strategies and deliver added value’ (p. 24). Factors contributing to these changes were: the traditional UK hierarchical structure which had led to a ‘litigious, fragmented industry, where contractors and subcontractors were excluded from most of the design decisions’ (p. 3); changing patterns of workload owing to the introduction of fee-based competition and compulsory competitive tendering in the public sector; client dissatisfaction with the products of the industry; and the emergence of privatization and public–private partnerships (PPPs). Other factors were: the emergence and growth of ICT; and the globalization of markets. Chapter 1 considers these factors, and includes a short history of the UK construction industry; a comparison of the British and French construction and project management systems; comparison of project performance between the UK and some European industries; and the major industry reviews of Latham and Egan and how the industry has responded. The large surveying firms offer a range of services including project management, legal services, taxation advice, value management and consultancy on PFI projects, and earn less than half of their fee income from quantity surveying services. Two ‘new