Inverness surveyor steps down after nearly half a century working on some of the most important buildings in the Highlands
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Surveyor Richard Smith was involved in both the construction of Eden Court Theatre and the conversion of Skibo Castle.
Now, 49 years after starting his career as an apprentice surveyor, Mr Smith has retired from Allied Souter and Jaffrey, having built up an enviable reputation not only as a Mr Fixit in the Highlands, but also at a national level developing the Allied Surveyors group.
Yet, the former Inverness Royal Academy pupil did not initially intend to follow his ultimate career path.
Having excelled in football, basketball and cricket at school, he planned to be a PE teacher and was awarded a place at the Scottish School of Physical Education at Jordanhill College of Education in Glasgow. which he deferred for a year.
“My father said I had to get a job for a year,” he said.
“He had a haulage contract business and garage and he didn’t feel he wanted me to do that.”
He subsequently joined Souter and Jaffrey as an apprentice.
“I was only going to stay for a year but after about nine months I enjoyed the surveying,” said Mr Smith, who studied quantity surveying before moving onto general practice and finally building surveying.
He qualified as a fellow with the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors and after an interim spell with Inverness District Council, eventually became managing director of Souter and Jaffrey in the 1990s.
“I realised we were a big surveying practice in the north of Scotland but we were never going to survive on our own,” he said.
“So I took the bull by the horns and spoke to similar-sized businesses in different parts of Scotland and we formed Allied Surveyors Scotland.”
As a founding director and chairman of the company, he led Souter and Jaffrey to become one of Scotland’s largest surveying companies.
Discovering a similar set-up in England, he was also instrumental in the formation of Allied Surveyors UK, which under his reign was nominated by PriceWaterhouse Cooper as the fastest-growing professional company in Britain at that time.
He acknowledged a sense of pride, but added: “It was not because I wanted to be the biggest. It was never intended that way.
“I thought it was the only way similar groups of businesses could compete against others.”
But throughout his business life, he has remained true to his Highland roots and although his job took him all over the country, he saw no reason to move away.
“I was born and brought up in Inverness,” he said. “These are my roots.
“I have an affinity with Inverness and the Highlands. I didn’t see any reason why I couldn’t run things from here.”
High-profile projects in which he has been involved include Eden Court Theatre.
Although there was some public opposition, mainly relating to cost and the site next to the Bishop’s Palace, others regarded it as an innovative building when it opened in 1976.
It was unusual in that there was no steel frame other than the one holding the pitched roofs to the eaves – only load-bearing concrete blocks.
“The construction of it was very unique,” Mr Smith said.
“The shape was designed to give the best acoustics. It was very much respected as a flagship project.”
Other projects over the years include the restoration of Skibo Castle after it was bought by businessman Peter de Savary, who wanted to recreate the luxury and authenticity of an Edwardian sporting estate, Beechwood Business Park in Inverness, and the AI Welders building in the city’s Longman Industrial Estate, when the company moved out of its Rose Street base and Elgin Academy.
He also singles out a £25 million extension at RAF Lossiemouth in the early 1980s to house a fleet of Nimrod aircraft as particularly memorable.
Mr Smith has also been involved in the property market and become accustomed to analysing price fluctuations.
He said cheap mortgages in the past had led to people buying bigger houses than they needed, which had then triggered an escalation in prices for everyone.
He maintained that previously, people would start with a one-bedroom property and progress upwards. Now people want to jump straight into a four-bedroom house,” said Mr Smith, who recalled the first home he and his wife Jane bought – a small one-bedroom property in Hill Street which cost about £1500, but would cost up to £95,000 now.
“I think the problem now is we don’t have sufficient council houses,” he said.
“I would like more council houses to be built, not necessarily to sell. They are a great way to get people into houses.”
As he retires, three new directors appointed in Inverness – Keith Campbell, Andy Gray and James Burns – are looking to continue his legacy.
Mr Smith is also a past president of Inverness Chamber of Commerce and has been involved in various national sporting bodies including basketball and golf.
He has a son, Paul, who is a paediatric doctor in Edinburgh and a daughter, Carrie, who is a forensic psychologist at Highland Council.
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