My first big cost plan, no cost cutting required and a true sense of client appreciation
York College GBP 36m, 2005.
“Dropping you a not following a client review on York College with Anne. She is still missing you despite Jon M doing a great job.”
This was one of the first projects I took ownership of estimating and cost planning of as part of the client consultancy team with Tuner and Townsend. Two years post graduate and on the cusp of passing my RICS APC I was still receiving valuable mentoring from Jon Marshall (Associate) and content support from John Clayton (Services cost expert). I learned so much from my peers in my time at T&T and forever appreciate the extra time they put into explaining and discussing when I had query.
With a public sector client establishing realistic budget is critical. When tenders exceed the established budget it is typical that ‘cost cutting’ is required and you are often taking true functional and performance value out of a project alongside a cost reduction. This is not the true intent of value engineering.
Value engineering in its true form is great and particularly critical for a public client. Done in the early design stages alongside design development you are truly testing the design brief against best value.
It was a nervy time manging the tender and clarification process but a definite whoop whoop moment when the leading main contract tender came back under the budget and within 1% of the estimate. This absolutely ticked the box of professional service being delivered by T&T.
Where I also got great reward on this project was in the relationship I developed with the client representative, Anne, the deputy principal of York College. Anne sat in on project team meetings and had responsibility for reporting to the Dept. of Education and school user groups. This was her first dealings with the construction industry and to some extent we were learning together. I would make time outside of the meeting to better explain the cost component of meetings to help her reporting and also became a go to for Anne when she was looking for direction on the project and process.
I was sad about leaving T&T before the construction of this project was completed. Getting an email a few months on from Nick Townsend (Director) letting me know the project was still on track and Anne missed me was lovely.