Construction Management and Consultancy Services
We work with clients, developers, funders and professional teams who need a construction project managed properly. Some bring us in at feasibility, some at procurement, and some when a live project has already started to drift. All seven services below can be taken on their own or combined into a full client-side delivery role.
Seven Services, One Delivery Role
Hands-on management and coordination of construction projects, from mobilisation through to practical completion.
We take responsibility for running the build. That means working closely with clients, consultants, subcontractors and suppliers to keep control of programme, quality, cost and delivery, and being on site often enough to know what is actually happening rather than what the report says is happening.
Construction management suits projects where the client wants direct control and visibility of the supply chain rather than handing the lot to a main contractor and hoping. It works particularly well on refurbishment, conversion and complex sites, where the scope moves as you open things up and a fixed lump sum either gets priced with a fat risk allowance or falls apart on the first variation.
What it covers
- Project mobilisation, site set-up and establishment of site management arrangements
- Day-to-day management and coordination of trade contractors and specialist packages
- Programme management, sequencing and short-term look-ahead planning
- Quality management, inspection regimes and workmanship standards
- Health, safety and welfare oversight, and coordination of duties under CDM
- Management of design information flow to site
- Cost control, valuations and change management alongside your commercial team
- Risk identification, escalation and mitigation
- Reporting to the client and wider project team
- Completion, commissioning, snagging and handover
When clients bring us in
Typically at pre-construction stage so we can set the programme and procurement strategy before commitments are made. We also take on projects mid-build where the current arrangement is not working, though the earlier we are involved the more we can do about it.
Getting the strategy, the packages and the programme right before anyone breaks ground.
Most of the money on a construction project is committed long before it is spent. The decisions made at pre-construction stage, the procurement route, how packages are split, what is in and out of each scope, when each trade is appointed, largely determine what the project costs and how long it takes. Get that stage right and the build is mostly administration. Get it wrong and no amount of good site management fully recovers it.
We support clients through that stage, whether that is running the whole procurement exercise or reviewing and stress-testing a strategy someone else has put together.
What it covers
- Procurement strategy and route selection, including the trade-offs between construction management, traditional, design-and-build and management contracting
- Package breakdown and scope development, with particular attention to the interfaces where packages meet and things get missed
- Tender list development, pre-qualification and supply-chain assessment
- Tender documentation, issue, management and analysis
- Tender interviews, negotiation and appointment recommendations
- Buildability and constructability reviews of the design
- Value engineering and cost-option appraisal
- Construction planning and the pre-construction programme
- Long-lead item identification and early procurement of critical packages
- Site logistics, temporary works and enabling works planning
- Project mobilisation and handover into construction
When clients bring us in
At feasibility or shortly after planning consent, when the design is developed enough to price but early enough that decisions are still open. We are also brought in to review a procurement strategy before a client commits, which is a small piece of work relative to what it tends to save.
Structured client-side oversight of programme, responsibilities, risk and progress.
Project management is the client’s role rather than the builder’s. It is about making sure the project as a whole moves forward: that decisions get made when they need making, that the professional team is pulling in the same direction, that risk is visible before it becomes cost, and that the client knows where they stand without having to chase for it.
We provide that role for clients who do not have the in-house capacity to run a project properly, or who have the capacity but want an experienced pair of eyes alongside it.
What it covers
- Establishing project governance, roles, responsibilities and decision-making routes
- Setting and managing the master programme across design, planning, procurement and construction
- Chairing and minuting project meetings, and tracking actions to closure
- Coordinating the professional team: architects, engineers, QS, specialist consultants
- Managing the client decision schedule so information and approvals land when the programme needs them
- Risk register development and active risk management
- Change control and impact assessment
- Progress monitoring and reporting against baseline
- Coordination with planning authorities, building control, warranty providers and funders
- Managing the route through completion, handover and post-completion obligations
When clients bring us in
At the start, ideally, so the governance and programme are set from day one. Also common on projects where the client team has changed, capacity has been lost, or a scheme has grown beyond what the existing arrangement can carry.
Budgets, commitments, variations and cost visibility, managed alongside your commercial team.
Cost problems on construction projects are rarely a surprise. They are usually visible weeks or months earlier in the procurement position, the change log, or the gap between what has been valued and what has been committed. The difficulty is that this information tends to sit in three different places, and nobody is looking at it together.
We work alongside quantity surveyors and commercial teams to keep the whole commercial picture in one view, and to make sure the programme, procurement and cost positions are read against each other rather than in isolation.
What it covers
- Establishing and managing procurement budgets against the project appraisal or funding position
- Commitment tracking: what has been ordered, at what value, against what allowance
- Cost reporting and cash-flow forecasting
- Valuation review, payment application assessment and certification support
- Variation and change management, including entitlement, quantum and programme impact
- Contra-charge and defect cost management
- Final account support and settlement
- Cost reconciliation against the original appraisal, so you learn something usable for the next scheme
- Working with the client QS, funder monitoring surveyor and finance team
When clients bring us in
Usually alongside a construction management or project management role, since the commercial position and the delivery position are the same conversation. Sometimes as a standalone review when a project cost position has drifted from the appraisal and nobody can fully explain the gap.
Keeping the design team, specialists and site aligned so information lands when it is needed.
A surprising proportion of construction delay is not caused by building work. It is caused by information: a detail that has not been resolved, a specialist design that has not been coordinated with the structure, an approval that is still sat with someone, a discrepancy between two drawings that nobody spotted until the trade turned up.
We coordinate between architects, structural engineers, M&E consultants, specialist subcontractors and the construction team, so the information a project needs is available, coordinated and correct at the point the programme calls for it.
What it covers
- Managing the design programme and information release schedule against the construction programme
- Coordination between architectural, structural, M&E and specialist designs
- Managing specialist and subcontractor design portions, and their integration with the base design
- Technical query and RFI management, with responses tracked to closure
- Design and drawing review for buildability and constructability
- Identifying and resolving discrepancies between disciplines before they reach site
- Sample, mock-up and benchmark management
- Coordination with building control, warranty providers and approved inspectors
- Technical submittal review and approval tracking
- Managing as-built information and the handover information set
When clients bring us in
During design development or at pre-construction, so coordination happens before packages are tendered rather than being discovered on site. Also brought in on live projects where information is running behind the build.
The programme as a live management tool, not a document filed at week one.
Most construction programmes get produced at the start of a job, printed, and then only looked at again when someone is arguing about delay. Used properly, a programme is the single most useful management document on a project: it links design information, procurement, site activity and client decisions, and it tells you what is going to be a problem in six weeks rather than confirming what was a problem last month.
We develop and maintain construction programmes, procurement schedules and milestone tracking so the client has a clear, honest view of progress and of what is coming up.
What it covers
- Development of the master and construction programmes, including logic, sequencing and critical path
- Procurement schedules tied to the construction programme, so package appointments are driven by when the trade is needed on site
- Information release schedules tied to both
- Milestone definition and tracking
- Progress monitoring, measurement and updating against baseline
- Short-term look-ahead planning with trade contractors
- Delay analysis and recovery planning where a project has slipped
- Programme risk analysis and float management
- Reporting: what is on track, what is not, what is about to become a problem and what decision is needed to stop it
When clients bring us in
At pre-construction to set the baseline, and then throughout the build to keep it live. Standalone programme reviews are also common where a client suspects a project is behind but the contractor report says otherwise.
Targeted support on procurement, recovery, buildability and project strategy.
Not every project needs a full appointment. Sometimes a client needs experienced eyes on a specific problem: a strategy to sanity-check, a project that has gone quiet and needs an honest read, a buildability question on a design, or a decision they would rather not make on their own.
We take on defined pieces of consultancy work, usually fixed-fee and time-bound, aimed at answering a specific question rather than starting an open-ended engagement.
What it covers
- Project reviews and independent assessment of a project real position
- Project recovery: working out what has gone wrong on a struggling project and what can realistically be done about it
- Procurement strategy review and second opinion
- Buildability and constructability reviews
- Construction strategy and delivery-route advice
- Contractor and supply-chain coordination support
- Project controls set-up for clients wanting to improve their own reporting
- Expert support to client teams on specific commercial or delivery questions
- Due diligence support on schemes being acquired or funded
When clients bring us in
Often at the point where something feels wrong but nobody has put their finger on it, or before a significant commitment where a client wants an independent view. These pieces of work are typically short and defined, and frequently lead into a longer appointment, though that is not the point of them.