Ferry and Brandon’s Cost Planning of Buildings provides a comprehensive introduction to the practice and procedures of cost planning in the procurement of buildings.

The eighth edition of this leading textbook has been thoroughly updated to reflect the significant changes that have occurred in the UK construction industry since the new millennium. Whilst retaining its core structure of the three-phase cost planning process originally developed by Ferry and Brandon, the text provides a thorough grounding in contemporary issues including procurement innovation, whole life-cycle costing and modelling techniques.

Designed to support the core cost planning studies covered by students reading for degrees in quantity surveying and construction management, it provides a platform for understanding the fundamental importance of effective cost planning practice.

The principals of elemental cost planning are covered from both pre- and post- contract perspectives; the role of effective briefing and client/stakeholder engagement as best practice is also reinforced in this text.

In his revisions, Richard Kirkham reflects the many changes in the construction industry in the past eight years: procurement is given prominence early in the book; the changing role of the quantity surveyor and building economist is discussed, as is the crucial role they assume throughout the project life cycle. He emphasises the importance of early and collaborative working in the design team, as well as the impact of whole life-cycle costing.