RIBA has launched a review of the professional risk and professional indemnity insurance market in response to a crisis it acknowledges is “worsening” in terms of the cost and breadth of cover available to architects.

The cost of PI cover has been increasing in leaps and bounds in the five years since the Grenfell Tower tragedy exposed widespread problems with building safety. Practices have this year been reporting tenfold increases in the annual price for PI insurance – in return for less extensive cover than they previously obtained.

Setting out its plans for a “comprehensive study” of the PI insurance market – starting with a survey of members’ experiences – RIBA said the spiralling cost and declining level of cover provided by PII policies now posed a “serious threat” to the profession. It said smaller practices in particular were placed at serious risk of closure or of being forced into the unregulated sector.

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