Two key RICS personalities have come out in support of construction faculty chairman Michael Byng after the institution charged him with professional misconduct last week. Click here to view the Jeremy Hackett statement.

Launce Morgan, the last person to hold Byng’s post, told QS News: “I stand with Michael shoulder to shoulder.” He said that members of the institution saw the governance of the RICS as “Dickensian”.

“An attack on the chairman of the construction faculty in this public manner is without precedent and I am sure that all fair and right minded members take a very dim view of the people responsible for this within the RICS.”

Morgan launched an attack on the RICS in the summer in the pages of QS News shortly before resigning from the chairman’s role.

Jeremy Hackett, member of the RICS Governing Council and Schofield Lothian QS, told QS News: “The Byng case raises important issues for the proper governance of the RICS… First, Michael was acting in the first instance for members of the Construction Faculty. Secondly, there was no complaint (against him) from a member of the public.”

He added: “This must be a warning to the RICS. With 40% of the membership being in the Construction Faculty, essentially quantity surveyors, if the head of the faculty can be fined for ‘conduct unbecoming’ when representing their interests there will be huge issues of double standards across other faculties.”

An RICS hearing last week found that Byng had a perceived conflict of interest when he asked for an RICS inquiry into the demise of property agent Chesterton, as his wife had been a director at the firm.

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QS News