Commercial Support
Britain is short of quantity surveyors. Subcontractors are paying for it first.
The industry's own numbers say it plainly: in RICS's latest skills survey, 87% called the shortage a moderate-to-critical challenge, and quantity surveying is among the worst-hit disciplines. The QSs that do exist are being hired by the Tier 1s. Guess who's left without one.
The story
What the QS shortage actually costs a subcontractor
When a main contractor can't find a QS, a project slips. When a subcontractor can't find one, something quieter happens: the owner does the commercial work at nine o'clock at night, after pricing the next job and answering the site's questions. The application goes in a day late. The variation gets done on a nod. The certificate comes back short and there's no time to argue before the notice period closes.
None of that shows up as a "skills shortage" in a survey. It shows up as money — leaking out of exactly the firms who can least afford to lose it, while a senior QS commands £57,000 a year plus a car and gets snapped up by firms fifty times their size.
The QS Desk is our answer to that. One chartered-led commercial desk, shared across a handful of subcontractors, each paying for the slice of the function that actually protects their money. The maths only works because you don't need a QS at a desk five days a week — you need the applications in on time, the certificate checked while the clock is still running, and the retention chased until it's banked. That part is buyable. Monthly. For less than a twentieth of the salary.
What's covered
Three places subcontractors bleed money
The work you did on a nod in March is the money you don't get in September — unless it was written up when it happened.
- Instructions chased and confirmed in writing
- Variation accounts built with their evidence attached
- NEC compensation events notified and quotations assembled in time
- Early warnings raised when they should be — not after
A finished job isn't finished until the account is agreed and the retention is back in your bank.
- Final accounts assembled, substantiated and negotiated
- Retention tracked to its release dates and chased in writing
- Contra-charges challenged with records, not opinions
- The job you finished last year closed properly this year
Most commercial damage is done by letters that never got answered — or subcontract amendments nobody read before signing.
- Subcontract terms and amendments reviewed before you sign
- Payment terms, notice periods and retention mechanics mapped
- Incoming contractual correspondence answered in time, in kind
- A record kept so the story is provable when it matters
Before you sign
The contract review that stops the damage early
Most of the money a subcontractor loses on a job was lost the day the subcontract was signed — in amendments nobody read, stepped down from a main contract nobody saw. We read them before you sign, and we tell you in plain English what they'll do to you in month four.
What we look for, every time:
- The contract form, and what's been amended away from the standard
- Payment terms, application dates and notice periods — the real ones, not the ones on the enquiry
- Condition-precedent clauses that turn a late notice into no money at all
- Pay-when-certified mechanics, retention percentages and release triggers
- Liquidated damages, and what caps them — or doesn't
- Design responsibility and PI requirements you didn't price for
- Set-off and contra-charge rights, and how wide they've been drawn
What you get back
- A one-page risk register — every onerous clause, what it means in plain English, and what it could cost you.
- The three points worth negotiating — most amendments aren't worth the argument; we tell you which ones are, and give you the wording to ask for.
- A straight red flag when a term is bad enough to walk away from — said plainly, before you're committed, not discovered after.
Included in The Commercial Desk, and in every tender we price. As a standalone, on any subcontract — £395 fixed, before you sign.
How it fits
Built on the Payment Desk
Commercial support comes as The Commercial Desk — £2,580 a month, covering up to 4 live contracts. It includes everything the Payment Desk does, plus the three blocks above, plus a tender or prequalification pack each quarter.
Rolling monthly. Thirty days' notice either way. If it doesn't earn its fee, you can say so with your feet — that discipline is deliberate, because it keeps the work honest.