Level 3 Questions - Walthamstow Mall

Question 1

Could you explain the breakdown between the building elements, on-costs and risk allowances?

Answer 1

• Preliminaries = 18%
• OH&P = 5%
• Risk Allowances = 6.5%

Question 2

Why did you exclude inflation?

Answer 2

I excluded inflation as this was a request from the client; the client held their own budget for inflation and this was managed internally

I requested that the client confirmed this in writing so I could keep a record of this request

Question 3

Why did you exclude VAT?

Answer 3

I excluded VAT as this was a client request

I would always exclude VAT as all clients pay different rates of VAT, unless the client advises me to include VAT and at what rate I should include it

Question 4

What other exclusions were there on your cost plan?

Answer 4

Other exclusions I advised the client of included:

a. Site surveys
b. Planning costs
c. FF&E
d. Client direct costs
e. Capital allowances
f. Out of hours working

Question 5

How would you apply inflation to your cost plan?

Answer 5

Tender inflation – estimate base date to date of tender return

Construction inflation – date of tender return to mid point of construction

Question 6

What design efficiencies did you advise the client on?

Answer 6

GIA - GEA: 92% (90% target)
NIA - GIA: 80% (80% target)
Wall to floor ratio: 55% (50-60% target)
Units per core: 9 (8-10 target)
Lifts per core: 3 (3 target)
Slab to slab height: 3.05m (3.15m target)

Question 7

What advice were you able to give to the client once you produced the reconciliation document?

Answer 7

By reconciling the stage 1 and stage 2 estimates, I was able to advise the client that the overall project costs had increased from £175m at stage 1 by £23m (increase of 13%)

I advised that the reasons for the increase included:

• Overall increase in number of apartments – additional 43 units
• Overall increase in GIA – additional 8,500m2
• Scope of external works has increased to now include extensive landscaping

Question 8

How do you advise your clients on the validity of your cost plans?

Answer 8

To advise the client as to the validity of my cost plans, I presented a reconciliation of the project costs against benchmark data

This looked at the overall area rate as well as on an elemental basis