Two directors - both do the work
QSetc was founded in February 2023. Since then we have advised on ninety-two schemes across the UK, with development values up to £142.2m and a combined development value of £2.55bn.
There are two of us, and that is deliberate. It means the person you speak to is the person doing the work, and you are never handed to someone you have not met. Between us, we know every project.
How we work
-
We use live market data. For current market rates we draw on regular contact with the supply chain and on tender returns and live site costs from our own projects, rather than relying wholly on Spon's and BCIS. For specialist elements we engage with the supply chain early to ascertain indicative costs.
-
Tell us about your scheme, and send whatever information you have. We will advise which estimate fits, rather than assuming you already know.
-
Directors do the work. Nothing is delegated to someone junior.
-
We give an indicative fee range within 24 hours. Once we have received as much design information as you hold, we confirm a fixed fee for the estimate and the date the estimate and accompanying report will be delivered.
-
Assumptions and exclusions stated in full. Each estimate is issued in draft first, with a review meeting inside the fee.
Mark Stevens FRICS
Managing Director • Chartered Quantity Surveyor
Mark Stevens has worked as a Quantity Surveyor for 33 years. He graduated from the University of Reading in 1993 with a BSc (Hons), and began his career at Gardiner & Theobald in London, working on prime residential projects for high-net-worth individuals and providing early cost advice on large-scale mixed-use masterplans including Paddington Basin and Broadgate. He then spent 15 years in Northampton and Bristol as a Partner at mixed discipline practice GSSArchitecture, specialising in cost and contract management in the education sector, and building the Bristol office from a standing start. Being a QS partner within an architectural practice gave him a thorough understanding of the design process - and of how early intervention by the QS manages cost without stripping out the design intent. It is the thinking behind everything QSetc does. In 2013 he joined Gleeds in London as a Director responsible for the residential team, delivering schemes from £10m to over £1.1bn. In 2017 he joined Ward Williams as a Partner, establishing and leading the Salisbury office, specialising in cost management and independent monitoring surveying on projects from £100k to £150m. Having built and led large teams at GSSArchitecture and Ward Williams, Mark launched QSetc in February 2023 to work differently: deliberately small, offering a personal, high-quality service. He works with clients and their design teams at the early stages, when a cost can still change what a scheme becomes, and his job is to get the number right whatever it shows. His clients return to him scheme after scheme.
Outside work. Mark is an avid music buff with an eclectic vinyl and CD collection, a keen reader, gardener and cook. He has held a number of voluntary roles, including BITC Prince of Wales Ambassador for the South West, Governor at Devizes School, Trustee of the EQUA Multi Academy Trust, and Vice Chair of the Salisbury Neighbourhood Development Plan Steering Group.
Beyond the numbers: the Kukaya Kwithu Foundation
Sarah met Dorothy in April 2024, at the Women's Partnership Challenge in Malawi. Dorothy was 26, and had taken twelve girls into her home. The youngest was three.
They were living in the Ghetto, which is not a safe place for a young woman on her own with twelve children. The toilet and shower facilities were shared and unhygienic, and the girls were ill so often that Dorothy was paying for hospital visits most weeks.
We moved them straight away. By May 2024 the household was in a secure home with four bathrooms of its own, and we have covered the rent and utilities since. We also help with school fees and with what the girls need for school.
Mark and Sarah went back in November 2024 and spent a few days with them, taking them to see wild animals for the first time and out for a restaurant meal, neither of which any of them had done before. On the same trip they sat down with Dorothy and a solicitor to begin the application for charitable status. The Foundation was granted it in August 2026, which opens up grant funding and wider support.
The girls are now aged five to seventeen. It matters to us that a small business can make a real difference to young lives.
Sarah Stevens
Director
Sarah began her career in London at the Burton Group and Ratners plc, specialising in corporate communications and investor relations. She moved into financial PR at Brunswick and Hudson Sandler, advising FTSE 100 companies across several sectors. Her clients included Persimmon, McCarthy & Stone and the property developer Bourne End Properties (Leo Noe), now Noe Group Limited. She then worked at KPMG in Bristol, in the Transport Department, through the privatisation of the national railways, and South West Marketing Manager for Strutt & Parker, based in Salisbury. Returning to Wiltshire, Sarah ran her own administrative and marketing consultancy supporting small businesses for ten years. She went on to build a pet care business from nothing, growing it to a team of up to 25 and running it for eight years before closing it to focus on QSetc. At QSetc, Sarah handles new enquiries and prepares the fee proposals. She is the director you will deal with on fees, invoices and appointments. She also leads on finance, marketing, research and company secretarial matters, and writes and proof reads the reports that accompany Mark’s estimates. She obtains current market rate prices from suppliers and contractors and monitors live on site costs, so the rates behind an estimate reflect current market prices. Outside the business, she and Mark support the Kukaya Kwithu Foundation, a home for girls in Malawi.
Outside work. Sarah is a trained silversmith, and a keen reader who also knits and embroiders. She recently took part in the Women's Partnership Challenge in Malawi, running two workshops for Malawian businesswomen and climbing Mount Mulanje. She facilitated QSetc's long-term financial support for a children's home in Malawi.
CONNECT
We only publish a scheme once it is in the public domain, and we will remove anything at your request. If you are weighing up a site, nothing about it appears anywhere until it is public.
Mark Stevens FRICS
Managing Director, Chartered Quantity Surveyor
Estimates and cost plans
QSetc Limited is an RICS regulated construction cost consultancy based in Wiltshire, preparing cost estimates for developers, housebuilders, financial viability consultants and planning consultants across the UK.