Public authorities of various kinds buy architectural services for the design of new housing to the tune of c. £40m/year in London and 4-5 times that in the UK as a whole. Private sector developers are likely to be spending around twice that in London. All developers are currently not able to see the full gamut of practices who can design housing, and public sector formal procurement processes seek bids 'blindly' via the Find a Tender process. Whilst the authorities will get expressions of interest from a number of practices, there is no easy way to quickly see what the practices are capable of without going to each firm’s website, which is time-consuming.

 

There is an increasing emphasis on social value in procurement, and the relevant data about the supply chain is not currently visible to the market. Private sector developers want to easily see practices who they might bring to a public sector opportunity, by seeing who is local, and/or representative of a local demographic.

 

Architects do not currently report on inclusivity stats and should be encouraged to do so and thus to improve the diversity of their workforce.

 

PURPOSE OF DIRECTORY

 

Improving the quality of new homes

Enabling housing developers of all kinds to make better choices of architects and thus drive a better quality built environment

 

Visibility of whole supply chain

Helping local authorities and housing associations as well as housing developers ’see’ the architectural supplier market in one place, and use relevant filters to narrow down the suppliers

 

Visibility of profession statistics

Showing collective and individual supplier stats to the profession itself as well as clients and government

 

Promotion of best practice public procurement

Showing procurement tips to the public sector

 

Promotion of SME suppliers

Giving visibility to smaller firms who aren't on people's radar

 

Promotion of Equality and Diversity

Encouraging architecture practices to value diversity and inclusion in their workforce