Practice fulfils for needs

A long-standing firm of chartered quantity surveyors, Downey & Warren in Ipswich has charted not only the changing approach of social housing, but the way this has fostered an evolution in the role and practice of the profession

From its earliest days as a branch office of the London-based quantity surveyors Cook & Butler, the practice that is today known as Downey & Warren has had a strong connection with social housing. One might say that the two have grown up together.

The Ipswich firm can trace its history back to 1963, with Ron Downey the man appointed as the associate at the helm, and for over 20 years it served its parent practice until in 1986 Downey bought out the branch to create the independent firm of chartered quantity surveyors, then known as Downey & Butler.

In those days, matters were arranged somewhat differently between professionals and housing associations. In today’s world, this relationship is something of a historical curiosity that will no doubt raise a few eyebrows, but back then it was a common and accepted practice that chartered surveyors – among others – could take an involved hand in establishing housing associations. Long
before modern tendering processes, their presence on the board meant there was a professional always on hand, ready to step in whenever the appropriate work came along.

Times and practices change, and when this practice was changed, Downey appropriately stepped down from his direct involvement in social housing providers, but the working relationship far from ended. Rather, it grew over time.

“Ron had interests in the early days of housing associations and was instrumental in setting up Orwell Housing here in Ipswich and Mid-Essex Housing Association in Chelmsford. The practice did all of Orwell Housing’s work until the early 1980s,” said the current principal David Warren.

Warren himself joined the business as a trainee in 1976, working up to associate in 1983, and became a partner in 1989. The practice finally became known as Downey & W arren in 1995. Throughout this period, its work with social housing has been an important – though not exclusive – string to its bow with Orwell Housing forming something of a “bedrock” of the business, but other notable projects have included the Felixstowe Leisure Centre and the Sudbury Leisure Pool. Aside from these projects, outside of housing, the practice has worked on projects in the commercial sector as well as healthcare, churches and schools.

Next month, Downey & Warren will hand over a scheme of 36 houses and flats in Ipswich to Orwell as well as a smaller development of three bungalows.

The measure of these projects testify somewhat to the way that the role of quantity surveyor has evolved over the years, from a hired professional providing a compartmentalised service (if it can be put that way), to an informal partner helping to shoulder the complex burden of modern construction projects. “Our specialism is the costs and contracts to do with construction projects. We would manage the finances, organise the contracts, but in recent years we’ve project managed as the employer’s agent on design and build jobs. So we’ve effectively become the lead consultant,” Warren explained.

“When we started off, all of the jobs with housing associations were traditional procurements, with bills of quantities produced by the quantity surveyor, but there has been quite a change in the procurement route since the late ‘80s. Jobs are now done on a design and build basis, without the bills of quantities, but the quantity surveyor has remained in the team acting as employer’s agent.

“That’s been quite a change of concept and a change in the way of working, but I fully endorse the way that housing associations procure their work nowadays. As quantity surveyors, we need to be flexible in our approach and learn new ways of doing things.” Flexibility is all the more essential in today’s economic climate, of course, especially going forward. The practice has found itself in the unprecedented position of having no housing association schemes in the forthcoming year, so it must inevitably focus on projects in other sectors. Given the long association between the practice and the
social housing world, this is doubtless a brief pause. Indeed, given the length of history and the close association between Downey & W arren it is perhaps remarkable that such a hiatus has not occurred before.

There’s a first time for everything, as the saying goes. Regardless of the future direction the practice takes, social housing will always remain a “proud” component of the practice’s history. As Warren said: “I have thoroughly enjoyed and felt satisfied to provide social housing where it’s needed.”