RSHP hands staff £1,500 cost of living payment

Architect RSHP has handed staff a £1,500 cost of living payment, the firm has revealed in its latest report and accounts.

The practice said all its UK staff, which number around 150 people, had been handed the payment while the firm said it had also paid back those salaries it cut in the wake of the slump in work caused by the covid-19 pandemic.

In its results for the year to December 2021, the firm said turnover recovered by a third to £25.5m with pre-tax profit more than doubling from £2.3m to £5.6m.

But in the accounts, which were signed off earlier this week, the practice said workloads remained under pressure because of increases in inflation and global interest rates.

In a strategic report accompanying the results, RSHP director Ian Birtles said the combination of Brexit, the after-effects of the covid-19 pandemic, rising inflation and the cost of living crisis were responsible for an “ongoing lack of confidence” in the market for architectural services.

But he said RSHP had secured more potential work than was previously anticipated.

“We expect that a number of London-based projects should start during the first half of 2023 and due to a slowing down in the construction market in China we expect the percentage of our work in the UK to increase in 2023,” he added.

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Despite the upbeat message on RSHP’s domestic pipeline of work, Birtles’ report said the practice expected 2022 turnover to be flat and profit to come under pressure.

“We continue to be prudent with regards to income recognition and consequently we are currently projecting that our consolidated turnover will be broadly in line to that for the year to 31 December 2021,” the report said. “As a result of increasing costs we anticipate that profitability will be lower.”

The firm’s biggest market remains the UK with £6.8m of revenue in 2021 followed by China where it carried out £5.8m worth of work.