Last week TFT decamped to the Royal Lancaster Hotel to jointhe 2019 RICS Building Surveying Conference (May 2), an industry gathering witha full programme of seminars and panels tackling the state and future ofsurveying.

Katie Brooks, Associate Building Surveyor, chaired three sessions on twotopics across the day, hosting almost 600 people as part of her role in theRICS Conference Working Group which shaped the day’s agenda and content.

Katie’s first session was on offsite and modular construction, a topic which is regaining recognition in the industry due to the cost saving opportunities it offers, and the scale which modular building techniques can provide. A recent RICS report on Modern Methods of Construction declared modular methods could be a route to accelerate home building for the Government’s target of 300,000 homes per year by 2020.

Katie chaired a presentation and Q&A by Tim Prosser of Hawk Technical, who examined the pros and cons of modular and off-site construction methods. Tim drew on case studies he has witnessed over the past few years, and weighed up the benefits for different kinds of developer, and he also showed how differing approaches would result in implications for building sequence, logistics, sustainability and design process on top of the core considerations of time, cost and quality.

The second session on Katie’s agenda was a presentation onthe building regulations, and specifically enforcement. A presentation fromDavid McCullogh (who chairs the RICS Fire Safety Leaders Forum and sits onCIC’s specialist Grenfell panel)reminded the audience that the industry has a duty to self-regulate, and totake responsibility for proposing improvements.

We also saw TFT Partners David Mann and Chris Gibbons take the stage to give an update on Technical Due Diligence (TDD) as the RICS prepares to launch the latest Guidance Note on TDD. The pair presented best practice updates on assessing risk, how to approach surveys for different building types, how to use technology such as drones to maximise access and value from a survey, and what clients expect from the best surveyors.

In summary, those are: sharp detective instincts, a commercial perspective on what impacts value the most, and clear, timely communication of the key facts.