We speak frequently in architecture about how poorly remunerated the work is. We speak of missing fee scales, a race to the bottom, undercutting, reduced demand, and being undervalued. In light of the renewed RIBA agendas around fees and protection of function, now seems to be an apposite moment to take stock of architecture’s economic position.

It is now old history that the Monopolies and Mergers Commission (MMC) required the RIBA to drop its fee scales in 1982. The RIBA then published “recommended”, followed by “indicative” fee scales in response. However, in 1992 an investigation by the Office for Fair Trading required the RIBA to also withdraw those.

This prohibition of any form of prescribed fees was reinforced in 1998 by the Competitions Act. All of these governmental policies were part of the socioeconomic drive for de-regulation and free market economics that has gripped British politics of all colours since the late 1980s.

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