A reader responds to one of Richard Steer鈥檚 columns

Surveyors

Something in Richard Steer鈥檚 piece (鈥淎 matter of public record鈥�, 13 March 2015, page 28) made me sit up and think. He quoted approvingly RICS as saying 鈥渨ithout surveyors, projects do not get built鈥�. Are we really that indispensable? Without the surveyor/project manager at his side (or usually ahead of him), the architect might have to re-learn how to manage projects. Without the surveyor, cost prediction might suffer (but again the architect may have to brush up on his cost/m2). Without the surveyor, the contractor would have to prepare his own bill of quantities. Despite all this, I think that the industry might still just about get by if a tsunami destroyed every surveyor鈥檚 office.

Malcolm Taylor FRICS, via email

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