MEPC – Milton Park Cost Benchmarking

MEPC needed reliable, up-to-date cost data to plan development and test viability at Milton Park in Oxfordshire.

Our cost management team drew on more than ten comparable projects to build a benchmark based on real data and current market conditions.

Building a benchmark MEPC could rely on

MEPC approached us in 2024. The brief was simple: make sure the costs it uses to assess future opportunities are accurate, current and in line with the market.

The challenge was finding projects that matched a very specific brief. The benchmark had to cover lab-enabled shell and core developments, with functioning cores, car parking and soft landscaping, an electrical supply including a substation, and sustainability targets of BREEAM Excellent and EPC A+.

We interrogated our internal project database for relevant schemes that closely matched the criteria. We identified more than ten suitable projects, enough to give MEPC a broad and reliable sample.

Turning old costs into today's prices

As the projects spanned a ten-year period, we adjusted costs to 2024 market conditions to provide a like-for-like comparison. That put everything on a level footing and meant the benchmark reflected today's market, not historic prices.

We then sense-checked our findings against Building Cost Information Service (BCIS) data. Combined with our own project data, this gave MEPC a clear view of a likely cost range based on evidence, not assumptions or one-off examples.

Supporting earlier decisions

We presented the findings as a concise, graphical one-page report that MEPC can use across its development appraisals. With this information to hand from the start, the team can compare opportunities and make informed decisions prior to commissioning a detailed feasibility study for every option.

The result is greater confidence in early budgets, reduced uncertainty and a practical cost benchmark to support future development planning.