RICS states that adopting International Construction Measurement Standards (ICMS) would make the country more attractive to international investors – providing greater transparency, consistency and certainty for them.

The RICS Construction Market survey has reported almost consistent growth in infrastructure workloads during the last four years in Scotland. Additionally, Ernst & Young’s 2018 Scotland Attractiveness Survey highlighted a 7% increase in the number of foreign direct investment (FDI) projects in Scotland, solidifying its reputation as the most attractive FDI destination in the UK after London. Therefore, the need for more accurate reporting of costs in construction and infrastructure projects is critical not only in terms of attracting investors, but also for assessing the economic viability of projects and maximising their impact.

Gail Hunter, director RICS in Scotland, said: “At present, there is a lack of uniformity in how construction projects and costs are measured and reported around the world, which can provide risks for investors. Widespread adoption of ICMS in the construction market here could provide Scotland with a real competitive advantage and signal to potential investors that this is a market that they should be active in.

“ICMS provides global consistency in reporting; the kind of consistency that inward investors increasingly demand, and government projects need. Our message is very clear to the Scottish Government, the construction sector and other stakeholders that widespread adoption of ICMS provides the opportunity for significant competitive advantage.”

International Construction Measurement Standards (ICMS) is a high-level international standard that aims to provide greater global consistency in the classification, definition, measurement, analysis and presentation of construction costs at a project, regional, state or national/ international level.

Malcolm Horner, emeritus professor of engineering management, University of Dundee and chairman of Whole Life Consultants Ltd, said: “The benefits of sharing useful, robust and consistent data are widely recognised, both to provide benchmarks and improve the quality of estimating and cost prediction.

“Data sharing would be helpful to governments and other organisations who need to demonstrate value for money. It would allow the efficiencies of different organisations to be compared and inefficiencies to be identified and targeted. It would also allow clients and consultants, particularly smaller ones, to better determine what a project should cost, what it will cost and what it did cost.”

The standard has been written by a group of independent industry leaders. The International Construction Measurement Standards Coalition (ICMSC) is a growing group of more than 40 professional and not-for-profit organisations from around the world, working together to develop and implement international standards for benchmarking, measuring and reporting construction project cost.