Would the real QS please step forward?

What the clients say...

Geoff Wright, projects director, Hammerson

QSs are very good with figures, but it’s a bit like working with accountants – they’ll never look at the whole picture. I think they should stay as QSs and not try to move up the chain [to become project-managers]. The client and consultants with a QS advising them – that works well. I’ve got no qualms about a QS who gives the client advice on costs, but doesn’t act as a surrogate client. But they don’t necessarily make good project managers.

The best projects are run by a project manager, with a QS providing advice. That’s the way the most successful projects we’ve run recently have been structured – as two separate appointments.

Shaun Darley, director of property, Mitchells & Butlers

Conservative? You mean other than their dress sense? The less said about that the better! But seriously, the last thing you want is a charismatic QS.

You don’t want someone who’ll take liberties with your cash, so you’re quite heartened when they’re a little bit staid.

I haven’t noticed any step changes in the past five years – it’s more a case of constant improvement happening incrementally. Our QSs have suggested different techniques or materials for us that they’ve used on other projects. But you have to use them properly, as part of the team, rather than as a gatekeeper to keep score.

The architects’ opinions …

Piers Gough, partner, CZWG

QS News – does that have a lot of photos of people playing golf, or will there be some buildings in there? We like a job with a QS who’s proud to be a QS. The worst are the ones who think they’re everything else but and spice up their lives with new job titles.

Do they get design? The thing is, there’s an awful to “get”. I have some sympathy with QSs on that. There is no norm these days – every building is a built differently, every building is a one-off and everyone has different theories about performance and sustainability. Maybe I’m dreaming of the days when you had a cavity wall or a curtain wall and that was it, but I think the role has become incredibly difficult. It’s tough to get within 1 or 2% of the cost plan now.

Stuart McLarty, director, de novo architecture

I think the profession has gone through a massive change – it’s become pretty key in the whole procurement and development strategy. A few years ago, the QS role was disappearing, but they’ve reinvented themselves as the client’s cost consultant and usurped the architect in many cases for the role of first choice consultant. The good project managers are proactive and very involved in helping the client make decisions. These days there’s a whole new generation of skilled professionals working in the client bodies, and the project manager sitting alongside has to be just as smart or smarter. Because of the way we work, it’s very much a collective effort towards a common goal.

The contractors’ views …

Bob Rendell, managing director, Leadbitter

Over the last four years, there has been a marked change in the way professionals are treating contractors – as professionals and as key members of the team, as opposed to just being “the builder”.

The two parties to the contract who take most of the risk are client and contractor. Five years ago, QSs saw it as their place to keep the screen up between them, but since then they’ve gone a significant way to change that relationship. I’m sure disputes have been reduced as a consequence of the two parties being able to talk to each other thanks to the changing role of the PQSs. A lot more projects are delivered with the contractors being involved at the early planning and design stage – and contractors can add a lot of value by identifying potential risk.

Mystery contractor

As an industry, we could improve the management of budgets and cost plans. The one thing that’s pivotal to the success of a project is to establish the right budget. We still see budgets coming under pressure because they were inadequate in the first place. QSs need to look at a project from first principles, at the data, research and expertise. They need to be prepared to stand up to clients and make sure the design team are informed of what they need to achieve. There’s lot of data around, but you see budgets that are horribly wrong on a number of high profile projects.

A lot of good work has been done – the days of being a stand-offish professional are over and they need to come forward and join the party.

Steve Hindley, chairman, Midas

From a contractor’s point of view, some QSs are very good and in tune with the Strategic Forum and the Egan agenda in terms of a cooperative team approach.

But unfortunately, some are still in the Dark Ages, selling the concept of employers taking on a design team and putting the work out to tender at the cheapest price. The industry needs to get all PQSs singing from the same hymn sheet. They have to advise the client on employing an integrated team with the contractor there from day one to evolve the project. If they don’t, they’re giving the client bad advice.

It tends to be the contractor who puts together the most robust cost budget. The minute you’ve got a contractor on board, they can provide that information.

… and the QS’s response?

Kevin Arnold, partner, Gardiner & Theobald

I can understand the implicit frustration from the unnamed contractor about the importance of the budget and of the cost consultant’s place in its preparation and management. I am constantly depressed by the profession’s output regarding this important aspect.

Too often, I hear of grey-suited, Uriah Heap-type cost consultants who wring their hands apologetically and sit in the corner of design team meetings only speaking when spoken to. Most wouldn’t know a development appraisal if they bumped into one, yet their expertise could be harnessed to assist clients with the sensitivity modelling that typifies the financial testing of most projects.

Maybe it is far-fetched to refer to “cost consultants” and “charisma” in the same sentence. I would say though that, unless QSs feel comfortable being strong, self-confident and opinionated, their clients may be better served if they quit and become librarians.

As a PQS myself, I only hope Mr Hindley’s views are not reflective of the industry at large. Perhaps I am unusual in being opposed to the concept of vertically integrated services: combining design, project, cost, commercial and construction management from one organisation seems to fundamentally miss the point.

The delivery of all these aspects from a single source breeds all that is bad in British industry: self interest, protectionism, reduced cost-effectiveness and loss of creative thinking.