What’s in a name?

I thought QS News a wonderful initiative. Good though Building magazine is, there is still a huge hole in the market for the sort of RICS specialisms that are fast becoming broader fields of professional activity.

You’ll probably have to rename the magazine eventually, as ‘QS’ is not the best title for people, media or RICS policy (I worked at RICS from 1997–2004) but I’m sure you’ll get there in the end.

I also hope that many surveyors and project managers will take Rob Smith’s lead [see Holyrood Crisis triggers Davis Langdon overhaul, page 3, QS News 22 April] and become more holistic in approach. I thought DL under Paul Morrell was exactly that already, but I acknowledge that there were some hard lessons from the Scottish Parliament fiasco.

The real challenge will be to communicate quality in the built environment and how the new breed of QS contributes to that. When I was employed at the Architects’ Journal in the mid-’80s, I tried to guide the cost reports along the lines of quality measurement, but it was an uphill battle. I was stuck with development economics, which was extremely dry. The new QS must not be tagged with the old ‘bean counter’ label – there must be other added values.

Good luck with future issues.