HPA Featured in May June Issue of Lancashire Business View
HPA Architects were included in The Red Rose 2023 Roll of Honour, as a result of our Built Environment Award win!
The judges said, “Punching above its weight on the national stage, HPA combine design excellence and a real team ethos with sustainability and environmental threads and a commitment to supporting local charities and community initiatives.”
As a winner of the Red Rose awards 2023, Director Zoe Hooton took part in a conversation about the impact of the award, held at Mitton Hall in the Ribble Valley.
Zoe reflected on what makes HPA a winner, “In the last few years, we’ve gone above and beyond our profession to try and make a real difference in our pack of Lancashire.
We’ve set up architecture youth groups, we’ve put on festivals, we’ve helped Lancaster BID for things. We’ve really gone above and beyond. It has really taught us how well we treat our people, because they’ve come with us and stayed and grown.
The thing we’ve gained from our win is confidence. We’ve always done the right things but never shouted about them. We’re quite humble. These awards have been a chance to collect all these things together and share around the office.”
HPA’s Planning and Heritage Consultant Jess Barrow attended ‘the big squeeze’ discussion. The attendees examined how decisions in construction have been affected by price rises and how this has impacted ambitions.
“We work with a lot of local authorities. We’re delivering schemes that are government grant funded and it’s a collaboration.’ Jess explained, ‘People are nervous. People aren’t signing up to the grant funds because they don’t know what the prices are going to be.’
‘We go through a laborious tender progress and by the time I’ve got the other end my prices have gone. So, it’s difficult to know what you’re going to spend.”
Jess also discussed how the sector is coping with volatility when it comes to contracts, “sometimes we find that we’re the ones that are cut, not the materials, not the products. It’s the professionals. There’s this whole false economy.
There’s a ‘mess-up’ with the building regs and they’re got the wrong products. Then we get back involved down the line and we undo a load of work, and our fees are twice as high.”
Jess shared some hope about how the sector can create better solutions, “Moving on site meetings with clients with drawings out, walking round site, having human interaction, and avoiding Teams meetings…there’s more confidence, more buy-in, you’re all in it together.”
Read further here: https://content.yudu.com/web/3uxek/0A3uxel/MAYJUNE2023/html/index.html?page=44&origin=reader
Thank you to Lancaster Business View for inviting us to be part of the ongoing dialogue between businesses in Lancashire.
