ABSTRACT
The collection, analysis, publication and retrieval of cost and price information together comprise a very important facet of all sectors of the construction industry. Contractors and surveyors will tend, wherever possible, to use their own generated data in preference to commercially published data, since the former incorporate those factors which are inherent to themselves. Published data will therefore be used for back-up purposes. The existence of a wide variety of published data leads one to suppose, however, that they are much more greatly relied on than is sometimes admitted.
