Cannon Clarke Architects employed 12 people at its peak, working on housing, leisure, community and commercial spaces around the East of England. 

But the 10-year-old practice has now entered voluntary liquidation, and its six remaining staff, who survived a round of redundancies in March, have lost their jobs. 

The practice’s two former directors are speaking with liquidators at RCM Advisory to see whether they can continue to help existing clients on ongoing jobs.

Jon Brent, one of the company’s co-directors and a former associate at AHMM, told the AJ the liquidation was necessary due to rising costs and falling workloads. 

‘It’s a case of regional economic factors, if not national economic factors, which have been very much not in our favour probably for the last year,’ he said. 

‘We have seen a reduction in the amount of inquiries and confirmed commissions, [and] getting through the planning system has been a problem. 

‘We have got the issue of nutrient neutrality in Norfolk, and effectively we have had applications in the system for three years without being determined, and the technical work beyond planning is potentially 60 per cent of our fee income. 

‘There is an economic issue in terms of developers — sites are not viable with cost of construction and getting consents and GDV values, coupled with the increased cost of putting together an application.

‘We’ve had to take a hit on increased National Insurance’

He added: ‘The cost of our resource – staff – has become quite challenging. We have had to take a hit on increased National Insurance. 

‘We also took on an apprentice on the basis that it was an affordable investment, but then Labour decided to hike up the minimum wage for apprentice wages over a certain time, which effectively doubled how much we’d have to pay her.’

Brent concluded: ‘I’d like to think that we went about growing our company in a very sensible, organic way. It wasn’t a huge growth spurt on the back of one job, but political factors and economic factors can sometimes take the rug from under your feet. 

‘I don’t think the incumbent government are really that bothered about small to medium businesses.’

‘However bad the Conservative government could be perceived, they did support, in an economic way, people trying to make a living and being employers. I don’t think that Labour has that same ethos.’ 

The RIBA’s most recent Future Trends survey suggested architects were still broadly positive about the workload pipeline, especially in the commercial sector. But the industry bellwether for July suggested there ‘may be challenges ahead’ for those working in housing and across London.

RIBA head of economic research and analysis Adrian Malleson said: ‘The housing sector, crucial to smaller practices especially, has seen a marked decline in workload expectations over the past two months.

‘London, the largest market for architects’ services, has seen a significant drop in confidence during June and July. Much of the commentary received this month focuses on the domestic sector.

‘Practices report it being subdued, due to weak consumer confidence, increased construction costs, planning delays, and technicians winning smaller projects. A weaker overall housing market is reported to be contributing to the slowdown.’

Malleson reported that practices had also noticed ‘increased competition, downward fee pressure, persistent planning delays and slow project progress’.