There is much to celebrate about the success of the UK’s architectural industry. All the evidence suggests that the buildings we design today are better than ever. Indeed, our annual awards season, now just commencing, will demonstrate an enormous breadth of quality. In terms of pure architecture, we are most surely on a high.

It is no surprise then that architects’ dissatisfaction nowadays is not about our work. Instead, it is about our pay: ask any architect at an event or party and this is what they will say. Such a constant cry has arisen from systemic low fees, producing a lack of profitability in architectural firms, which in turn leads to low levels of remuneration.

The problem of low pay was described in an impassioned way by Aylin Round in a recent Building Design opinion piece, who despairs of this unhappy economic reality. What is the motivation, she rightly asks, of such a long education and working so hard, if the salaries of young architects are then so low?

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