Byng’s blueprint

Launce Morgan’s attack on the RICS

We are raising the issues (that Morgan highlighted in his summer assault). The whole point of my statement after Launce’s resignation was to acknowledge his comments.

Perhaps he didn’t raise them in the best way, but he felt strongly about the issues and said what he had to say. I don’t think I will get into that position as I will do things from the centre and try to understand the other point of view.

We are talking to the faculty and forums board (about the issues), but we can’t stall for 12 months while we talk about that. There’s no escaping it. There are people here (at the RICS) who find me as difficult as Launce was.
Somehow we have to bring this faculty to the centre and come out with more products, more bangs for our bucks, if that doesn’t sound too twee. There has to be more commercial income, not a subscriptions raise, which people think is too high anyway. We have to demonstrate value.
The structure of the RICS will change as we develop internationally. It’s a difficult thing for the RICS to come to terms with whether it’s a federal organisation or an empirical one, one that spreads geographically or one that holds knowledge.

Contractors and big PQS firms

We are under-represented with contractors. They historically feel this is a private practice organisation, but it’s not.

I want to bring people in from Laing O’Rourke, Skanska and Amec and demonstrate that what we do is relevant. There is a real opportunity to create a better relationship with them, especially centred on the real stuff coming up such as Crossrail and the Olympics.

The big QS firms think the construction faculty has not performed, so we want to talk to the best people out there among the big firms. The founders of names such as Gleeds and EC Harris were people of considerable skill and they came and offered this to the RICS, as well as building up successful businesses. We want them in again. We think we have something to offer with the work we are doing on measurement and PFI. At the end of the day, if you don’t join in you will never know.

New Orleans

We really feel for the guys over there. We are in talks with the Association for the Advancement of Cost Engineering (AACE) to look at how we work through the shortages of skills. There will be a call for surveyors from this country to go - our members are there working with AACE and government agencies trying to put a plan in place to provide more cost engineers. There is a particular shortage in the oil industry.

Why do the job?

The RICS has been kind to me. I went through a painful divorce 20 years ago and it was there for me. I was able to rebuild my life. They stood by me – I could have gone bust. It was a horrendous time. It’s quite a feeling place if you get to know it. Why am I doing this? To make sure there are the opportunities for people in this sector that were given to me 40 years ago.

Michael Byng’s CV

1960s and 1970s
Starts work in 1965 at Midlands firm Bridgewater & Coulton. One of his colleagues is David Austin (of Bucknall Austin fame). Subsequently works at Silk & Frazier. Qualifies in 1974 and in the next year establishes his own firm, Michael Byng Chartered Quantity Surveyors, specialising in dispute resolution. Later in the 1970s he moves into manufacturing work as well as civil engineering.

1980s and 1990s
In the 1980s works on urban regeneration schemes in the West Midlands as well as moving overseas on civil engineering schemes in the Middle East and Far East. Establishes Michael Byng Project Control in 1988. Becomes heavily involved in rail work during the 1990s, advising on contracts for Railtrack as well as the RICS education process. He was made a chairman assessor in the QS and construction sectors for the RICS in 1993.

2000s
Establishes railway business group for the RICS. Made deputy chairman of RICS construction faculty in 2004, moved up to chairman in September 2005.

Education and training

There is a need to create better relationships with academics to help us understand their position. But the problem is that universities are being forced to cap the number of undergraduates entering courses. If they fill themselves with first degree undergraduates, they go down in the league tables. That means we must look at more conversion courses for non-cognates.

We have made a conscious decision to involve universities more in research and development, which helps fund universities and makes them more relevant.

The problem on the training and skills front is that people have two or three careers these days, they chop and change. It means they might miss those key basics. I sometimes look at the senior people I have in my firm and it’s like Last of the Summer Wine with guys in their 50s and 60s. They have got core skills that have never been replicated among the younger generation. That’s crazy, so we need to transfer these skills earlier. If those skills are not there, then there’s a fundamental building block missing.

The public sector

It’s one of the groups among the membership that’s really been neglected – 18% of the membership works in the public sector. The role of the QS in local government is not being recognised properly.

We are helping the Society of QSs in Local Government to promote what QSs are doing in councils.

There has to be an influence from the QSs working in local authorities on public spending programmes.

Measurement: A world standard?

The importance of pre-contract estimating has never been greater. Measurement has been allowed to slip further down the supply chain - you most probably have the sub contractor doing it. Cost managers are getting removed from it – clients can now talk directly to contractors. We are trying to get the QS to hold the fundamental control document – the QS must be brought up the supply chain. When SMM7 was drawn up, IT was completely different and there wasn’t a real recognition of other design consultancies to make it work. It went it’s own way and slowly drifted on so that fewer people were using it. There doesn’t seem to be a common language or standard method - everyone is doing their own thing so transaction costs are rising. We need to at least get people talking to each other in a common language.

We are working with a lot of international bodies –International Federation of Consulting Engineers, European Committee of Construction Economists and Australian Institute of Quantity Surveyors – to produce a two-part measurement document that will create an international standard. The first part will be the basic standard and the second part will be relevant to the particular region. It’s not a one size fits all document. The UK can be part of that as well.

The Irish body the Society of Chartered Surveyors have a standard called the ARM3, which is in common usage – it’s simpler to use than the SMM7 and more common. We are bringing their skills in. It’s a truly international project and will have very clear benefits for the UK. After all, one of the biggest supermarkets over here is US-owned, and there are massive Australian developers such as Multiplex coming here. It would be a good idea to translate this information across countries. That’s why it’s so important.