Pictured above: Building Consultancy team

The last 24 months have been challenging at best, with many businesses across all industries facing decline and even closure as the UK starts to emerge from the sharpest financial downturn ever seen.

While the commercial property market may not be out of the woods completely, the Birmingham office of national consultancy, Lambert Smith Hampton (LSH), is bucking this market trend by expanding its team when many others are downsizing.

Alexa Cotterell, Head of the Building Consultancy department in LSH's Birmingham office, explained: "As an office we have just completed the last financial year on budget and on performance, with our department exceeding performance expectations too. The team has a confident growth strategy for the forthcoming year, and to kick-start that growth we have already appointed two new team members - Michele Wright and Jonathan Cooke. This gives us an 11-strong Building Consultancy team to service new and existing clients in the West Midlands."

Michele joins the team from Northcroft Consultants as Senior CDM (Construction, Design and Management) Coordinator and Health and Safety Consultant. She will be responsible for developing an already established CDM service, with additional services including site conformity inspections and site waste management plans. Having graduated from Birmingham City University, Jonathan will launch his career at LSH with projects including the refurbishment of four terraced industrial units and various dilapidations cases.

Darron Owen, Director in the team, added: "If we are to build further on the success of the last financial year, we needed to invest in the most pivotal part of our service delivery - our people. Michele and Jonathan are already making important inroads to strengthening client relationships and winning new business, which is no mean feat in a recovering but volatile market."

The team is currently involved with some of the highest profile buildings in the West Midlands. It is currently project managing a 60,000 sq ft refurbishment of a city centre premises, and a £1m external over-roofing, cladding and refurbishment scheme of office accommodation in the Black Country. The department also gets involved in some more unusual projects, such as the brick-by-brick relocation of a listed period property in Stone, Staffordshire."

At a time of decline in the wider market, LSH's national Building Consultancy division's headline figures tell a more encouraging story:

-          95 building consultancy surveyors throughout the UK

-          Circa 6.5 million sq ft of property surveyed annually

-          1000 dilapidations worth £131 million managed annually

-          Project services provided annually on projects worth in excess of £300 million

-          Project Manager on two BCO award-winning projects in the Midlands and South East.

-          Client satisfaction: 100% of clients surveyed would use the team again. 95% recommend our services.

Ian Kibble, Head of LSH's Birmingham operations, added: "We are determined to make a real statement in the West Midlands' property market. First and foremost this means making high profile appointments that bolster our teams and deliver multi-service projects to clients. The arrival of Michele and Jonathon follows closely in the wake of Alastair McChesney's welcome to the Office Agency team, and last year's appointment of regional property heavyweights, Peter Burford and Julian Shellard, as Consultants."

It may not be immediately obvious why certain property service lines, when delivered consistently well, are able to go against the grain when other market players are struggling. Alexa explains: "Property accounts for a huge percentage of a business' expenditure, with rent making up only around 60% of total property costs. It is unsurprising, therefore, that a recessional market has prompted occupiers to scrutinise their occupational costs more than ever before.

"Consequently, we are conducting many more space audits to evaluate occupiers' actual working requirements. Current Government 'best practice' suggests that businesses cater for a maximum of 80% of staff, given the increase in flexible and mobile working. By reviewing business space usage, tenants are able to make more efficient and cost effective use of their offices. Furthermore, owners and landlords are recognising that the best way to generate value is to preserve and improve the quality of a property portfolio. Some are even undertaking complete refurbishments in order to deliver high quality, modern workplaces which attract higher rents and corporate occupiers with stable, long term cash flows."

As property owners and occupiers realise the cost savings and efficiency improvements to be gained from their premises, demand for Building Consultancy services has helped the LSH team weather the economic storm. Alexa added: "While budgets might come under more scrutiny these days, savvy occupiers and landlords know that scrimping and scraping on property and fit-out quality will not be sustainable in the long-term."

For further information on Lambert Smith Hampton, please visit their website here: www.lsh.co.uk