While Robin Walker’s reply to Piers Taylor covers many of the bases you would expect it to cover, it shows little recognition of the sheer complexity of making sure that the right things are asked for in the negotiation, still less the difficulty of securing outcomes that will not further harm a profession already facing challenge. Its time for architects to lobby their MPs.
The RIBA has done a great deal of work in seeking to explain how the profession operates and its role in relation to the whole built environment ecosystem which is one of the most important contributors to the UK economy. It has lobbied government intensively in collaboration with related industries. DEXEU’s letter leaves little confidence that the requirements of the profession will be adequately fed into the negotiation. Just to take one key issue, there is migration where the advice of the Migration Advisory Committee is highly unsatisfactory for the profession.
It seems as if central government may not be listening carefully enough and architects need in response to speak to their constituency MPs about their requirements, just as the Prime Minister has in recent days been urging businesses to do. The RIBA website provides all the resources necessary to make to MPs the case for the profession and for each individual firm who cares about its future.