Imagine spending a year planning your perfect project. Engaging an Architect, developing plans that you love, submitting for planning, waiting months for a decision and then when approval is granted progressing the detailed Building Regulation drawings – paying out thousands and then finding out your project is 50% over your budget when a builder prices it?

Your next move is to spend more money re-working the plans (maybe having to re-submit to the Local Authority) to something more affordable or simply having to make serious compromises or worst case put the project on hold.

You may think, I’ve asked a local builder to provide a budget figure and this was fine, isn’t this enough? The short answer is no, a 30 minute visit from a local builder looking at outline plans won’t provide you with an accurate figure and the issue is many people take this ‘finger in air’ price as gospel which simply leads to disappointment.   

This is where a Quantity Surveyor lead ‘Cost Plan’ is essential. And it needs to happen before the Architect submits anything for planning. But why?

Well the answer is simple, there is very little point submitting something for planning which is massively over budget. Set expectations early and align the size of project with something you can afford. If the ‘Cost Plan’ shows you are 20% over budget then work with the Quantity Surveyor and Architect to implement changes to bring the project cost down by 20%. This could mean reducing the size of the proposed work in terms of size/scale, compromising on the budget allocated for items such as the kitchen by selecting something cheaper or simply deciding to cut back on the finish. Or looking at ways of phasing the work.

Re-working the plans and making changes to bring the ‘Cost Plan’ down to a figure you are comfortable with, will mean all the work that follows will be on the right track.

So the simple answer is don’t rely on ‘finger in air’ quotes, utilize the expertise of a Quantity Surveyor to perform a ‘take off’ and base off actual rates. Then you are safe to submit for planning and avoid the shock many people experience when their project comes in massively over budget!