How we work, from RIBA Stage 1 to handover
Bespoke Construction Group is engaged as main contractor from RIBA Stage 1 wherever possible, giving an honest view on cost and buildability while design intent can still be protected.
Bespoke’s involvement spans the full RIBA Plan of Work, Stage 0 through Stage 7, across the team, from the earliest relationship-building conversation through to delivery, handover and aftercare.
What a main contractor does
A main contractor holds a single contract with the client and takes responsibility for the whole build, managing subcontractors, procurement, cost reporting and programme, so the client has one point of accountability rather than several.
On every project, we also act as Principal Contractor under the CDM 2015 Regulations and the Building Safety Act 2022, the party legally responsible for managing health and safety during the construction phase. This isn’t a separate service, it’s confirmed on our ISO certification and built into how every project is run from day one.
Quantity surveying and procurement, why it's in-house
Running QS and procurement in-house isn’t unusual in itself, plenty of contractors manage this well, whether through their own commercial teams or trusted external QS relationships.
The difference that actually matters is integration: our QS function sits inside the same team delivering the project from Stage 1 through to final account, not coordinated as a separate consultant engagement with its own fee structure and priorities. Cost advice and delivery stay continuous, with no handoff between parties partway through.
The Full RIBA Plan of Work
Where We Sit, Stage by Stage
01
Engagement, Preparation & Briefing, RIBA Stage 1
We ask to be involved from Stage 1 wherever possible, not to take over the design, but to have an honest conversation early: is this buildable in the way it’s drawn, where is the cost actually going, and what could change now that would cost far more to change later.
- Strategic Definition
02
Pre-Construction, RIBA Stages 1 to 4
Buildability, value engineering, cost certainty, design coordination and risk management. Provisional sums are tracked as live risks, not settled numbers, each with a named owner and a point in the programme by which it needs to be firmed up. Value engineering means finding a cheaper way to hit the same brief, not a worse one.
- Preparation & Briefing
- Concept Design
- Spatial Coordination
- Technical Design
03
Construction, RIBA Stage 5
Procurement, programme, delivery, commercial control and quality. Cost reporting continues on the same cadence it started at pre-construction. Well-substantiated tender returns come from in-house QS throughout, and commercial control stays consistent from the first valuation to the last.
- Manufacturing & Construction
04
Handover & Use, RIBA Stages 6 to 7
Testing, commissioning, snagging, certification and defects management around practical completion, the parts of handover a main contractor is genuinely responsible for. Beyond that, into Stage 7, our involvement is lighter and relationship-led rather than a standing obligation, performance and post-occupancy input where a client wants it, not an assumed ongoing service. Anything beyond Stage 6 sits under its own agreement, not an automatic extension of the build contract.
- Handover
- Use