A RECORD six candidates submitted nominations for the presidency of the RIBA last Friday.
As well as two senior partners of major practices – Jack Pringle of Pringle Brandon and Richard Saxon of Building Design Partnership – the candidates include Valerie Owen, managing director of London's inward investment agency London First, and three architects running smaller practices, Simon Foxell, Ian Salisbury and Brian Godfrey.

The low standing of architects within PFI is a recurring theme of the campaigns. Pringle plans to draw up "a suite of design-friendly models" of procurement that would give design quality a higher priority.

Foxell also stressed the need to improve quality in the public sector: "There's no point expecting schemes to be designed in two weeks and endlessly driving costs down."

Godfrey said he plans to fight the way large, multiple PFI contracts discriminate against small practices.

Raising salaries in the sector is another recurring theme. Saxon said: "We need ways of collecting a proportion of the value we create," while Owen proposes setting up "a client champions panel to develop performance-related fee structures, to help improve architects' pay, conditions and profit margins."

Salisbury said it was time to do something about "the misunderstood profession".

After three weeks of polling, the winner will be announced on 29 or 30 June.