Emailed in by MBK from The Sunday Times readers' letters:
As architects, we can only get work with many of the housing associations if we take the risk of working for nothing up to the point when planning approval is granted for a scheme. Otherwise, there is no chance of getting on board a new project.
This procedure can cost thousands of pounds — all at risk — and in some cases it can take many months, if not years, to secure an approval. If the scheme is rejected by the planners, you get nothing. Furthermore, the client can change the brief and mess you around for as long as it likes at no cost to itself, or take a flyer on a problematic site.
This appalling business practice is driving some architects to the wall. Surely everyone should be paid in a proper manner at all times, rather than taking suicidal financial risks to secure work, especially when housing associations claim to practice ethical behavior at all times.
Adrian Mitchell chartered architect Yelverton, Devon.
Housing Associations are dressed up as private/charitable organisations, but they are nearly all government owned and controlled. So that's a nice trough to get your snout into.
So to ensure that only large firms of architects, who can afford to pre-subsidise the work, get a look in, there's a nice barrier to entry for you right there.
(The whole of architecture is a closed-shop business, so they are all guilty of anti-competitive trade practices, but as per usual, the big ones are disproportionately worse.)