Why UK Architects Lack Influence: Fees, Policy and Reform

A CPD lesson with Jay Morton, director at Bell Phillips Architects. Approx. 52 minutes. Watch the video below or listen to the audio.

Who this is for

Architects and architectural professionals at every stage, from Part 1 and Part 2 assistants to practice leaders, who want a clear-eyed view of the pressures facing the UK architecture profession: influence, fees, the cost of qualifying, education and reform. It is equally useful for anyone weighing how small practices, public engagement and policy shape the work architects are able to do.

Learning outcomes

By the end of this lesson you will be able to:

1. Explain why architects often have limited influence in UK policy and decision-making.
2. Describe how fee competition and tendering affect practice viability and design quality.
3. Assess how the cost of architectural education and apprenticeship funding shape who can enter the profession.
4. Contrast the "service provider" view of architects with the "doctors of buildings" view, and what each means for how you position your work.
5. Explain the role small practices play in the profession and in local communities.
6. Consider how AI and sensible reform might reshape architectural practice and careers.

1. Why architects have lost influence

The conversation opens on a hard question: why are architects so often absent from the rooms where decisions about the built environment are actually made? Morton argues that the profession has allowed itself to become largely invisible in government and under-represented in public debate, so that the people shaping housing, planning and regeneration policy rarely hear an architect's voice. Rebuilding that influence, she suggests, starts with architects showing up in policy and public conversations rather than waiting to be asked.

2. The pressure on practices and the race to the bottom on fees

Many practices are under real financial strain. A central theme is the "race to the bottom" on fees, where firms undercut one another to win work, eroding margins, squeezing salaries and ultimately the time available to design well. Morton connects thin fees directly to quality: when practices cannot charge sustainably, the work, the workforce and the buildings all suffer.

3. Why tendering is broken

Linked to fees is a procurement and tendering system that, in Morton's view, too often rewards the lowest price over the best outcome. The discussion looks at how competitive fee tendering pushes risk and unpaid work onto practices and discourages the long-term thinking good architecture needs, and why reforming how architectural services are procured matters for the whole profession.

4. The cost of becoming an architect

The route into architecture is long and expensive. The conversation covers student debt, the cumulative cost of a Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3 education, and the apprenticeship funding problem that limits a genuinely more accessible alternative. The concern is straightforward: if the only people who can afford to qualify are those with means, the profession narrows and loses talent and diversity.

5. Education and the profession's bubble

Morton is candid about architectural education sometimes keeping students in a bubble that does not always reflect how practice, clients and communities really work. The takeaway for educators and early-career professionals is to connect studio learning more closely to the commercial, regulatory and human realities of delivering buildings.

6. Service provider, or "doctor of buildings"?

A recurring framing is whether architects are seen as interchangeable service providers or as expert advisers, the "doctors of buildings" whose judgement protects clients and the public. The distinction is not just rhetorical: it shapes fees, influence and trust. Positioning architects as skilled professionals with hard-won expertise is central to how Morton thinks the profession should argue for its value.

7. Why small practices are the backbone

Small practices make up most of the profession and do much of the work that shapes everyday places and communities. Morton makes the case that supporting small and emerging practices, rather than designing systems around only the largest firms, is essential to a healthy, resilient profession.

8. AI, quality and the future of the profession

On technology, the discussion weighs how AI could change architectural work, for better and worse, and why human judgement and design quality still matter. Morton's warning against "fast food buildings", quick and commoditised development that ignores place and people, sits at the heart of this: efficiency should not come at the cost of what buildings are meant to do for the people who use them.

9. Where reform begins, and advice for early-career architects

Asked where to even start, Morton points to collective action, clearer advocacy and reform of fees, procurement and the routes into the profession. Her advice to Part 1s and Part 2s is practical and encouraging: build your skills, find your voice, and engage with the profession's bigger questions rather than keeping your head down.

Key terms

• Race to the bottom: competing on ever-lower fees until margins, pay and design quality all suffer.
• Competitive fee tendering: procurement that ranks practices largely on price, often at the expense of quality and long-term value.
• Doctors of buildings: framing architects as expert advisers whose judgement protects clients and the public, rather than interchangeable service providers.
• Fast food buildings: quick, commoditised development that ignores place, people and quality. The anti-pattern.
• RIBA: the Royal Institute of British Architects, the profession's chartered body and a focus of the reform debate.

Reflective prompts for your CPD record

• Where in your own work are you competing on fee rather than value, and what would change if you led with expertise?
• How visible is your practice to the people making decisions about the built environment where you work?
• What is one practical thing you could do to support an early-career architect facing the cost of entry?

About the guest

Jay Morton is a director at Bell Phillips Architects, where she works on large-scale housing, masterplanning and regeneration. A housing campaigner and advocate for the profession, she stood as a candidate in the 2026 RIBA presidential election. Episode recorded 2026. Explore the Bell Phillips Architects practice page and Jay's profile on the Architecture Social directory.