A ROW has erupted between the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment and the British Property Federation over claims that award-winning architects are displaced once projects have won consent.
CABE chairman Sir Stuart Lipton, speaking on Radio Four's Today programme on Wednesday, called for a change in the planning law to ensure that the practice that designed a scheme could not be replaced by a different firm after permission was granted. CABE has commissioned solicitor Herbert Smith to look into the issue and will publish a report in the summer.
But BPF director-general William McKee this week denied that there was a problem. He said designs were changed because they were unbuildable or because local planners kept control over the projects.
McKee also questioned CABE's design judgment. He said: "In many ways, the development industry is far more innovative and exciting in the architecture it produces than CABE, which tends to have a narrow focus on what is good design."
