2024-12-31-accounts

RIBA Annual Report and Financial Statements —

31 December 2024

Contents Introduction 4 Our strategy 7 Our year in numbers 9 Theme 1: Delivering for our members 11 Membership 13 Practice and professional standards 18 Education and learning 20 Infuencing 22 Marketing and communications 24 Equity, Diversity and Inclusion 25 Theme 2: Improving our cultural offer and 27 celebrating great architecture Our public programme, collections and awards 29 RIBA— Annual Report and Financial Statements December 2024

Theme 3: Developing a high–performing organisation 33 Equity, Inclusion and Diversity 35 Products and services 37 People 40 Employee engagement 41 Governance 41 Technology 42 Energy and Carbon Reporting 43 Streamlined Energy and Carbon Reporting (SECR) 44 Methodology 44 Financial Review 45 Total income 46 Total expenditure 49 Key risks and mitigations 52 Structure, governance and management 55 Independent auditor’s report 57 Consolidated statement of fnancial activities 62 Balance sheets 63 Consolidated statement of cash fows 64 Notes to the fnancial statement 65 Legal and Administrative details 101 Principal Advisors 105 Supporters 107

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Introduction RIBA RIBA - Annual Report and Financial Statements December 2024 Architecture.com

Introduction

2024 was a significant year for RIBA, in which we carefully developed each pillar of our major House of Architecture investment programme, spearheading our mission to support architecture for making the future a better place, an endeavour in common cause with allied disciplines, academia, and public and private sector organisations globally.

Jack Pringle, Chair of Board of Trustees, His Royal Highness The Duke of Gloucester, Patron, Muyiwa Oki, President and Valerie Vaughan-Dick, Chief Executive at RIBA. © RIBA

Thanks to the insight received through several phases of consultation with our members and wider stakeholders throughout the year, we made steady progress in bringing together and sharing our world-class collections, enhancing our digital offering and making long overdue upgrades to our London building.

For our House of Architecture programme in 2024 we delivered:

Design phase and delivery of RIBA Stage 1 and 2

• Two phases of stakeholder engagement, including with Youth and Access panels, which influenced the Stage 3 design that began in late summer

• The planning for the fundraising campaign, which began in the autumn, and our brand implementation project that commenced in February

• A new partnership with The London Archives to house our collections during the temporary closure of our London headquarters, with the discovery phase for the long-term future of our collections being completed at the end of the year.

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Introduction

Some other key deliverables included:

• UK Membership – delivering over 200 Local Initiative Fund-supported events with more than 8,500 attendees

• International Membership – a programme of strategic events for networks of members across the globe, including Hong Kong, Singapore, China, USA and across Europe, and celebrating the 15 year anniversary of our Gulf Chapter

• Successfully delivered high-profile regional, national and international awards including the Stirling Prize and Royal Gold Medal

• Co-established a sector-wide collaborative network to develop and launch the Net Zero Carbon Buildings Standard

• Published a new fiscal model for long-term funding of social housing: Foundations for the Future

• Developed a training and assessment programme for the RIBA Principal Designer Register, responding to the requirements of the Building Safety Act

• Progressed our formal Governance Review

• Increased commercial revenue to support long-term financial stability

• Achieved a balanced operational budget, the second since 2023.

The highlights in this report reflect only a fraction of the work that took place across the organisation, drawing on the expertise of our many volunteer members to support our global membership and fulfil our charitable purpose.

Valerie Vaughan-Dick Chief Executive

Jack Pringle Chair of Board of Trustees

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Our strategy RIBA RIBA - Annual Report and Financial Statements December 2024 Architecture.com

Our strategy

Our purpose is to make the future a better place , advancing architecture and the built environment for the benefit of society. We do this by championing and celebrating excellence in design, fostering innovation and promoting sustainability. We also advocate for the highest standards of professionalism and ethical conduct. Our long-term Strategic Priorities ensure everything we do supports our 1834 Royal Charter objective: “for the general advancement of Architecture, and for promoting and facilitating the acquirement of the knowledge of the various arts and sciences connected therewith”.

They focus on ramping up our work on inclusion, diversity and access to the profession; tackling the climate emergency; investing to better engage and support our global membership; influencing; and building a physical and virtual hub for the debate and promotion of excellence in architecture.

Highlights of our activity in 2024 are presented here under three strategic areas that are core to our organisation and its outputs:

“for the general advancement of Architecture, and for promoting and facilitating the acquirement of the knowledge of the various arts and sciences connected therewith”

RIBA Royal Charter

1. Delivering for our members

2. Improving our cultural offer and celebrating great architecture

3. Developing a high-performing organisation

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Our year in numbers RIBA RIBA - Annual Report and Financial Statements December 2024 Architecture.com

• £30.7m

total

income

57,000

Members worldwide

In 2024:

12m

page views on architecture.com

52,000

new followers across core

RIBA social media channels

2.5m

visits to our online collections

6,000+

visitors to RIBA collections sites

160,000+

participants in our public programmes

140,000+

attendees on our CPD courses

700+

regional events delivered

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Theme1 Delivering for our members RIBA 11 RIBA - Annual Report and Financial Statements December 2024 Architecture.com

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Membership

In 2024, we continued our focus on activity we know our UK and international members value the most: supporting our member networks, enabling community engagement, developing our life–long education and skills programmes, and sharing business–critical resources. We drove engagement through delivery of a consistently excellent member experience, with the continued growth of our global networks and programmes delivered. Following membership insight from our ‘Truth Report’ we continued our influencing work on their behalf.

In terms of overall membership development and support, we:

• Welcomed over 2,074 new Chartered Members and 231 new Chartered Practices

• Retained 21,117 of our Chartered Members with over six years’ experience

• Our Membership & Contact Centre team successfully handled 34,197 telephone calls and 22,379 email enquiries

Membership Experience UK highlights:

• A 73% increase in regional programme and event delivery on the previous year

• Granted £257k as part of our Local Initiative Funding, £211k of which was to enable 112 local events and programmes to be delivered through volunteer-led branches and groups in the UK

• Delivered over 700 regional programmes including building tours, lectures, social events and other initiatives for members and local built environment professionals

• Organised 100 building tours for over 3,000 attendees including a programme developed by the South Region’s Conservation Group with a tour of Bath Abbey

• Hosted the RIBA Stirling Prize finalists at events in Leeds for Stirling Stories North, and the Leeds Society of Architects presented four events over four weeks with its 4x4 lecture series in collaboration with local schools of architecture

• Developed a ‘Make it happen’ programme in partnership with Nottingham City Council and other professional bodies – RTPI, ICE, CIOB – with over 100 attendees experiencing keynote speakers and active debate

• Continued our support for small practices and sole practitioners in London with in-person talks and opportunities to connect on subjects such as domestic building contracts

• Devised a new programme to influence local policy and improve process, resulting in 43 round-table discussions with key stakeholders being held within UK regions

• Delivered our Future Architects Mentoring Programme for student and early career architects, supported by 459 Chartered Practices

• Delivered an exciting Regional Awards programme, supporting 11 juries, visiting 186 shortlisted projects, and hosting 10 ceremonies attracting over 1,100 attendees.

2,074 231 new Chartered Members new Chartered Practices

• Together these enabled us to achieve a Customer Satisfaction (CSAT) score of 91%

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RIBA Member roundtable with Sir Chris Bryant MP, Labour Shadow Minister for Creative Industries and Digital, March 2024 © RIBA

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Membership

Working with our Corporate Practices

We worked closely with our 19 Corporate Practice members to engage with our activity, support their business growth and ensure take-up of their member benefits.

We invited our Corporate Practices to attend roundtables on Principal Designer: New Role Challenges in April (17 practices attended), equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI) and Changes in the Register in November (17 practices attended) and Horizons 2034 in December (8 practices attended).

We concluded the year with our Leadership Summit on 28 November where our Corporate Practices and other members discussed the impact of the Building Safety Act on the profession. The event was well attended, with strong engagement and positive feedback from participants.

Valuing our volunteers

Our member volunteers help shape our organisation by supporting the delivery of our activities for the benefit of the wider membership, our local member communities, and RIBA itself. In 2024 we developed our volunteer strategy to promote the value of our volunteers and support our members in their understanding of volunteer opportunities and provide access to resources.

In November 2024 we had approximately 1,225 volunteers in elected or nominated volunteer roles.

In July 2024 we held our annual UK Members’ Forum, its theme being ‘The Importance of being Future Conscious’, which had 98 attendees, engaging in panel discussions, guest speaker session and plenary workshops.

Championing retrofit

We partnered with The King’s Foundation to shape a new initiative to champion retrofit, promote the reuse of existing buildings, and spotlight the local skills and expertise needed to make it happen. We planned a programme of events to be delivered in 2025, to bring thought leaders together to spark dialogue, share best practice and support cross-sector action on reuse in the built environment at a local level.

At The King’s Foundation, we champion the sustainable regeneration of buildings, so we are excited to be collaborating with RIBA to establish a forum for engaging conversations.

Sarah Robinson

Architect and Associate Director at The King’s Foundation

1,225 volunteers in elected or nominated volunteer roles

98

Local Member Forum attendees, engaging in panel discussions, guest speaker sessions and plenary workshops

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Membership

Membership Experience International highlights:

Our International Membership Experience team made significant strides to grow engagement with Chartered members and Future Architects as part of our strategy to expand our global community:

• Granted £50k as part of the Local Initiative Fund to support Chapter initiatives in Hong Kong, Singapore, Sri Lanka and the Gulf

• Delivered our first virtual International Members’ Forum in February 2024 to share inspirational experiences of the members’ groups across the globe

• Held our first member events in Malaysia and Australia and launched the RIBA Student Awards in the Gulf

• Delivered a programme of activity in Europe with events in Paris, Madrid, Milan and Frankfurt

• Attended MIPIM in March 2024, with a delegation comprising 16 Chartered Practices – championing the value of good design through several events including a reception attended by the Minister for Housing

• Represented RIBA architects at Singapore Archifest in Hong Kong at the Net Zero Heros Forum attended by over 75 industry leaders, and The Art of Sketching, the inaugural exhibition by our Hong Kong Chapter featuring over 145 works from both firms and individuals including Heatherwick, Farrells, Foster + Partners, Wilkinson Eyre and Snøhetta

• Delivered a programme at major real estate event in Riyadh Saudi Arabia Cityscape Global in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, in November 2024, bringing together our largest ever delegation of corporate partners, Chartered Practices and our Gulf Chapter members to showcase the best of UK architecture, supported by the Department of Business and Trade

• Marked the 15th anniversary of our Gulf Chapter with events across the year in UAE, Oman and Saudi Arabia and grew our influence through a new partnership with the Society of Engineers UAE.

• We also worked hard to foster international relations, including:

• Attending the American Institute of Architects (AIA) Conference

• Attending two Architects’ Council of Europe (ACE) General Assemblies

• Attending the International Union of Architects (UIA) General Assembly

• Signing the Commonwealth Association of Architects (CAA) Knowledge Partnership Memorandum of Understanding to support those countries facing the most urgent challenges of rapid urbanisation and climate change

• Delivering a Fact Finding Survey and a report on the National Building Codes across the Commonwealth with the Commonwealth Association of Architects (CAA) Knowledge Partnership Memorandum of Understanding.

• Renewing our Memorandum of Understanding with the AIA at the UN Climate Change Conference COP28

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Practice and professional standards

We continued to support our members by updating our competence standards, developing new technical standards and providing professional knowledge and guidance, specifically around delivering Net Zero carbon buildings, meeting the demands of the new regulatory regime under the Building Safety Act and providing support on workplace wellbeing.

• Developing templates for members to use to comply with key duties including a Building Regulations ‘Relevant Requirements’ Tracker, for coordinating compliance information.

Launching the RIBA Health and Safety Test as a mandatory requirement for members undertaking ‘designer duties’ under Building Regulations in England.

Publishing a Workplace Wellbeing Practice Note, providing guidance for Chartered Practices on how overtime affects the roles in practice most at risk of not being paid the real living wage, to support the wellbeing of future architects, and undertaking more detailed research into the wellbeing of architects in practice for publication in 2025.

Key highlights included:

Receiving over 180,000 views of our Professional Features for members, with actionable intelligence and insight on regulations, technology, business and more, to support members in meeting and exceeding our standards of practice.

Leading the launch of the cross-industry Net Zero Carbon Buildings Standard pilot programme, for project teams to demonstrate that their buildings meet an industry agreed definition of a Net Zero carbon building, including detailed embodied carbon assessment and energy use criteria.

Supporting members in delivering the new Building Regulations Principal Designer role, including:

Undertaking the first RIBA AI Survey and report, which revealed optimism for the future of architecture supported by AI, while identifying key threats to intellectual property and business resources.

• Accepting over 300 members to begin the application process for the RIBA Principal Designer Register, with 80 completing the process

• Publishing a Principal Designer Practice Note, setting out best practice guidance on competence, contracts and professional roles and responsibilities

Publishing an overlay to the RIBA Plan of Work on engagement to support project teams with collaboration and stakeholder

engagement and a further overlay on the delivery of smart buildings. Both guides were developed with support from generous experts in their specialist fields of practice, to whom we are very grateful.

Assessing over 200 pieces of technical continuing professional development (CPD) for the RIBA CPD Providers Network, generating £987k as part of our partnership with NBS.

Publishing an updated suite of Professional Services Contracts incorporating necessary changes in terms and services following the updated Building Regulations and Higher Risk Buildings Procedure Regulations.

180,000 300

views of our Professional Features for members

members to begin the application process for the RIBA Principal Designer Register

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Practice and professional standards

Research

In another year of emerging challenge, opportunity and change, our research work delivered debate and future thinking by gathering and sharing the views of members, construction professionals and other experts.

• 2024 was an economically challenging year for many architects and their practices. Our programme of Economic Research continued to support members, providing our annual Business Benchmarking service, biannual Economics Panel, quarterly Economic Reports, and monthly Future Trends bellwether

• The inaugural RIBA AI Report gave findings of our survey of RIBA members about AI, what it means for practice and the profession, and provided expert discussion on the significant issues AI is raising for the profession. Our work around AI continues, with the formation of an Expert Advisory Group, covering AI, Generative Design, and Data

• Our Horizons 2034 horizon-scanning programme delivered valuable foresight for members into significant global trends influencing the future built environment over the next 10 years, covering the central themes of:

• The Environmental Challenge

• The Economics of the Built Environment

• Population Change

• Technological Innovation.

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RIBA AI in Practice Summit
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Education and learning

We continued to support students, working closely with education providers, practices and the Architects Registration Board (ARB) to ensure that our educational standards reflect the needs of the profession. With 2024 marking 100 years since RIBA validated its first architecture programme, today, RIBA continues to recognise excellence in architectural education, validating over 320 architecture programmes around the world.

We recognised the very best students’ work from around the world through our education awards and supported students through our suite of scholarships and bursaries. We continued to provide alternative routes to qualification through our RIBA Studio provision, and we continued to introduce architecture and the built environment to the next generation through our National Schools Programme and Informal Learning provision.

Key education highlights included:

• Celebrating 100 years of RIBA Validation with a centenary lecture at the University of Liverpool, given by Professor Lesley Lokko, Royal Gold Medal recipient, 2024

• Completing 14 UK validation visits and 16 international validation visits throughout 2024 we saw an increase in applications, further widening engagement with UK and international schools of architecture

• Launching our work experience programme to support school students in finding work experience opportunities in local practices

• Delivering learning programmes to more than 7,500 participants

• Allocating just over £320k to support architecture students and researchers via our scholarships and bursaries programme

• Successfully delivering our education awards programme, including the biennial Annie Spink Award presented to Professor Jane Anderson, and the annual President’s Medals student awards, receiving 372 entries nominated by 118 schools of architecture located in 36 countries – our highest numbers to date

• Welcoming 200 attendees from across academia, practice and policy for Interface2 to discuss how we address culture, diversity and inclusion at the interface between practice and education

• Supporting over 4,500 active users on our Professional Experience Development Record (PEDR) system

• Welcoming over 50 new students across our three RIBA Studio Programmes (Foundation, Part 1 and Part 2) and congratulating 24 students on their successful completions.

4,500

active users on our Professional Experience Development Record (PEDR) system

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Education and learning

In our work with and for students, we continued to work to widen access to architectural education:

My final year at Kingston School of Art was centred around a design thesis titled Ultra Town. I thoroughly enjoyed the process and was pleased with its outcome. To be unashamedly shallow, I was also happy with the grade that it received and its nomination for the RIBA Silver Medal. Only to be completely astonished and somewhat overwhelmed when it went on to win the actual thing. Frankly, this would not have been possible without the generous support of RIBA and the donors of the Part 2 Bursary. It afforded me the opportunity to not only concentrate on my design project and academic work, but also to fully engage in the broader culture of the profession. I hope that with more hard work and further dollops of good fortune, I will one day be in a position where I too can support and nurture future generations of architects.

Joe Franklin (Kingston University), recipient of a RIBA Part 2 Bursary 2022-2024, and recipient of the 2024 RIBA Silver Medal.

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WM Youth Panel
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Influencing

We advocated on behalf of the profession and society, sharing members’ expertise and providing solutions to societal and environmental challenges. We sought to demonstrate the value of architecture and architects, and build awareness and confidence in our profession, to clients and the wider construction industry, to government and society, thus, delivering on this important request received from our membership insight research.

Key influencing highlights included:

• Responding to 17 government consultations and parliamentary inquiries, covering diverse areas including the Future Homes and Buildings Standards, changes to the National Planning Policy Framework, the Grey Belt and the Industrial Strategy

• Attending over 100 meetings with Ministers, Members of Parliament (MPs) and civil servants, including building relationships with new MPs after the General Election

• Launching our report, Foundations for the Future, which sets out a new model to help deliver social housing

• Securing over 210 media moments, promoting our policy and public affairs activities.

The Policy and Public Affairs team continually advocated for homes, buildings and places to be high-quality and well-designed.

The new Labour Government echoed this in its consultation on changes to the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF), which suggested removing references to beauty in favour of ‘well-designed’ places.

• Engaging with the New Towns Taskforce to help embed high-quality design into new developments

• Attending the Labour and Conservative Party Conferences, with our President speaking at fringe events on delivering high-quality, sustainable homes

• Attending COP29, promoting our work on embodied carbon and retrofit, connecting with international stakeholders on sustainability matters and contributing to panel events and meetings

• Hosting high-profile events at 66 Portland Place including the Government’s Creative Industries Council and the Older People’s Housing Taskforce

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Influencing

The Government’s press release on changes to the NPPF quoted RIBA President Muyiwa Oki, who commented: “Much greater emphasis needs to be placed on design quality because, fundamentally, a poorly designed, unattractive, unsustainable home serves nobody, not least future generations.” The Government took forward our recommendation, with the importance of well-designed places now embedded in the NPPF.

As part of our work to improve building safety, we called for the wider use of sprinklers. In September 2024, the Government accepted this recommendation and made sprinklers mandatory in all new care homes.

Much greater emphasis needs to be placed on design quality because, fundamentally, a poorly designed, unattractive, unsustainable home serves nobody, not least future generations. RIBA President Muyiwa Oki

The Labour Government announced a New Towns Taskforce to support the delivery of the ‘next generation of new towns’. We began working with the Taskforce on its inception, meeting key Taskforce members and providing briefings on request on good design and high-quality development.

Panelists at RIBA’s Labour Party conference event with Peabody - Delivering high quality, affordable homes. © RIBA

The House of Commons Environmental Audit Committee’s (EAC) inquiry into heat resilience and sustainable cooling made frequent mentions of RIBA’s written and oral evidence. The report outlines the stark dangers of failing to act as the planet warms. The EAC positively echoed our calls to accelerate action on heat adaptation measures as part of a well-funded National Retrofit Strategy and expand urban green space.

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Marketing and communications

Our media campaigns resulted in significant coverage – (89 top-tier national news and broadcast articles), awareness and engagement with our policy and thought leadership positions (21 articles), including the final Phase 2 report of the Grenfell Tower Inquiry and our policy report Foundations for the Future: a new delivery model for social housing, while our in-house team led the media outreach on behalf of the vast cross-industry group to launch The UK Net Zero Carbon Buildings Standard (UKNZCBS) pilot.

We continued our focus on delivering targeted campaigns through the media and digital platforms, making sure our voice was heard on debates and issues that matter to our members, our sector and society. We worked hard to position our senior representatives as industry thought leaders and forged new media partnerships, reaching millions of people across the world.

We announced Professor Lesley Lokko as the winner of the Royal Gold Medal, given in recognition of a lifetime’s work, which achieved significant broadcast coverage on the BBC World Service, alongside a RIBA-commissioned film, which was shared across our social channels, including YouTube, where it received 2.5k views within the first month.

We implemented an ‘always on’ approach to our membership campaigns which increased new memberships earlier in the year and promoted our member value proposition throughout the year.

Our 2024 Stirling Prize media campaign was a huge success, with over 300 pieces of print and online coverage (including all major UK broadsheets) and more than 200 items on TV and radio programmes in the 24 hours following the announcement of The Elizabeth Line – London’s new transport network – designed by Grimshaw, Maynard, Equation and AtkinsRéalis as the winner. Highlights included a special live-streamed BBC News programme, a slot on BBC News at Ten and interviews with our winning architect and President across BBC Radio 4 and London’s BBC News programmes.

We made ongoing changes to streamline and improve the performance of our emails and social channels – maximising cut–through and impact. Our average social media post engagement rate was 6.9%, against a non-profit industry benchmark at 1.6-2.3%. We grew follower numbers to over 625k across the core RIBA Facebook, X, Instagram and LinkedIn accounts, a yearly increase of 52,776 followers.

six f We produced a series of lms celebrating House of the Year, our annual award for the UK’s best new home – achieving over 1 million views – our best performing film content ever, including our best performing social media content to date. architecture.com continued to be an Our flagship website essential source of information and content for RIBA members, as well as wider public audiences: in 2024 we had 12 million page views and over 2 million users.

625k followers across our core RIBA social media accounts

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Equity, diversity and inclusion

We developed a range of online guidance, programmes and events to attract a greater diversity of entrants into the profession and to equip practices and members with the tools needed to action a more inclusive built environment.

Key highlights included:

• Producing over 40 EDI-focused blogs and professional features with a range of topics such as: supporting neurodivergent colleagues, mental health awareness, designing for autism and age-inclusive design

• Working with external and internal stakeholders (including our RIBA Communities), to mark significant dates across the calendar year, reaching an average of 200,000 visitors via architecture.com each month. This included creating new resources and interactive content for: Disability History Month, Black History Month, South Asian Heritage Month, Women’s History Month and LGBTQ+ History Month

• Working with a variety of Inclusion Champions like Motionspot, Jane Simpson Access and our EDI Action group of over 40 members, we helped provide input on accessibility features for our House of Architecture programme

• Expanding our range of collaborative in-person events including the Women in Architecture working parents’ event, the Architecture Race Forum, the RIBA Education and Practice Away Day, the Decolonising Architecture symposium and Lesley Lokko’s Royal Gold Medal ceremony. Each event brought new diverse audiences into 66 Portland Place, including our best attended medal ceremony to date

• Announcing the launch of our commissioned study on gender equity in architecture with the Fawcett Society, which will investigate the experiences of architects who are women and those who have left the profession, asking why architecture is making slow progress on gender equity compared to other professions

• RIBA Learning and the EDI Leaders Action group launched the architecture work experience placement, which saw over 34 practices join the scheme with 34 student participants. This number continues to grow with each half-term open call

• Our EDI Leaders Action group also helped create our Inclusive Events and Micro-aggressions toolkits, which have had approximately 5,000 views since their launches in autumn 2024.

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RIBA LGBTQ+ Community internal group © RIBA

Equity, diversity and inclusion

Working with the RIBA EDI Action Group on delivering tangible outputs such as the Inclusive Events Toolkit has really helped progress the way we consider a range of meetings, events and conferences to better ourselves and champion inclusivity through the shared experiences of others within the group. At Bowman Riley, we had a good starting point, but the toolkit has developed our thinking more broadly and will have wider-reaching impact for everyone that attends our events.

In addition, the micro-aggressions toolkit has highlighted an issue that was not at the forefront of our minds but now allows us to be more open to challenge, improvement and to create safer spaces to express ourselves. Personally, I feel the benefit from having highlighted an unintended microaggression to an individual who has reframed their thinking and no longer comments in the same format as they did previously. It greatly improves my feeling of validity in these circumstances.

Colin Briggs-Campbell, EDI Leaders Action group member

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Theme 2 Improving our cultural offer and celebrating great architecture

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Architecture Against the Odds exhibition © Agnese Sanvito

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Our public programme, collections and awards

We progressed our House of Architecture Programme and continued to celebrate and showcase architectural excellence through our global standard setting awards, talks and exhibitions.

Public programme highlights:

We held over 35 events in 2024, including walking tours, lectures, symposia, private views, and curator’s talks, attracting more than 5,000 people in London, the UK regions and internationally. Highlights included the sponsored RIBA + VitrA series of talks, themed ‘Rethink’, which hosted national and international architects in London, Liverpool and Bristol. Our partnership with the Grimshaw Foundation continued as we joined forces to deliver an annual lecture which presented Hew Locke and Ekow Eshun to a very enthusiastic and young audience of 334 attendees. We also showcased excellence in architecture, by presenting six shortlisted practices for the RIBA Stirling Prize, at ‘in conversation’ events in London and Leeds, and through a display at 66 Portland Place, as well as the winner’s talk.

Our partnership with Tate Liverpool at RIBA North continued, as we developed plans to support public engagement in Liverpool. Our first exhibition there, ‘Long Life Low Energy. Designing for a Circular Economy’, received over 30,000 visitors.

‘The Architect Has Left The Building’ exhibition travelled from London to the Farrell Centre in Newcastle and engaged with 2,800 visitors in total.

Our Architecture Gallery at RIBA in London engaged our public with a very diverse range of exhibitions, showcasing our collections as well as newly commissioned artworks. Our ‘Wide Angle View’ exhibition closed in spring and welcomed more than 7,000 visitors; its catalogue was sold out.

Our summer exhibition ‘Raise The Roof – Building for Change’ welcomed more than 4,500 visitors and addressed the challenging historical features embedded in the architecture of our 66 Portland Place building. The exhibition and its associated programme of events held a much-needed space for dialogue and debate around the decolonisation of architecture and our vision to foster a truly inclusive and equitable profession. Dedicated audience research was conducted within the exhibition, which highlighted the appreciation of the public for this initiative and the expectation for more in the future.

Our winter exhibition ‘Difficult Sites: Architecture against the odds’ was very well received by almost 10,000 visitors of all ages.

Our Practice Space, at 66 Portland Place, hosted the exhibition ‘Sustainable Design in the Gulf: Past, Present & Future’, curated by our Gulf Chapter. We also presented the ‘Royal Gold Medal: Lesley Lokko’ display and our ‘President’s Medals’ display.

35

events in 2024

30,000 visitors received for ‘Designing for a Circular Economy’

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Our public programme, collections and awards

The RIBA Collections

Collections highlights included:

• Our Library and Collections services welcomed 5,666 visitors in 2024 (2023: 4,323) and issued 17,743 collection items for access by researchers

• Our online resources received nearly 2.5 million visits, and we answered nearly 5,000 specialist enquiries across our service

• By the end of 2024 we had nearly 140,000 images available on our RIBAPix website and digitised over 20,000 items. This included the bulk of the work to digitise 32,000 negatives which must be kept in frozen conditions, thereby, in time, making these images much more accessible

• Our Conservation team led work to protect upwards of 80 previously unprotected architectural models in our collections store and developed plans to improve the storage of the remainder of over 400 models in our care

• We progressed critical work on the Complete Catalogue of Drawings by Andrea Palladio (1508–1580), supported by the generosity of the American Friends of the British Architectural Library, and on cataloguing the collection of Sir Leslie Martin (1908-2000), supported by the generosity of the legacy of Donald and Nancy Notley

We prepared our collections to move out of 66 Portland

Place ahead of its refurbishment, including by commencing the boxing of 4,371 volumes in the Rare Books collection and packing over 50,000 glass negatives

• Our work to find a world-class permanent home which

combines our collections into a single site continued in 2024, with development of a RIBA Stage 1 Brief and the commencement of a detailed site search. A critical part of the Stage 1 Brief included the completion of a full audit of space and condition requirements for our collections, which helped ensure our new facility can provide what is needed for the care of all our collections long term

• As part of Refugee Week in June 2024, we held a two-day public conference, Displaced Lives: architects seeking refuge on brink of World War II, supported by the Association of Jewish Refugees.

Awards and Honours highlights included:

UK Awards

The RIBA UK Awards programme, which champions the work of our members, continued to highlight outstanding architecture across the country. 75 jurors were selected for the 15 Regional Juries, each consisting of a Chair, Regional Representative, Sustainability Expert, Conservation Expert, and Lay Assessor. Juries reviewed 353 projects and shortlisted 198 for awards. Throughout the year, 198 building visits were conducted culminating in 111 RIBA Awards. In June, 26 National Awards winners were selected after more jury visits and deliberations.

RIBA Stirling Prize

The Elizabeth Line by Grimshaw, Maynard, Equation and AtkinsRéalis was named the winner of the Stirling Prize on 16 October 2024. Over 600 guests attended the awards ceremony held at the Roundhouse in Camden, London in September. The winner was also announced live on BBC, with RIBA President and Jury Chair, Muyiwa Oki, declaring that the “The Elizabeth Line is a triumph in architect-led collaboration, offering a flawless, efficient, beautifully choreographed solution to inner-city transport.”

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Our public programme, collections and awards

International Awards

The RIBA International Awards are architecture’s highest global accolades. Typically taking place every other year, 2024 saw a return to action for the first time since Covid. In all 230 projects were submitted for the RIBA International Awards. 45 projects were shortlisted, with visits carried out by 35 Local Ambassadors, and 22 winners of the RIBA International Awards for Excellence were announced on 12 June. The RIBA International Prize shortlist was revealed on 6 November, with the winner Modulus Matrix: 85 Social Housing in Cornellà announced on 27 November.

Royal Gold Medal

The 2024 Royal Gold Medal was awarded to Professor Lesley Lokko at 66 Portland Place on 2 May. This was a sell-out event due to our most inclusive pricing for a public event. Prior to establishing the African Futures Institute (AFI) in 2021, Lokko taught around the world and reframed architecture courses to democratise, decolonise and progress architectural education. Notable roles include Founder and Director of the Graduate School of Architecture at the University of Johannesburg and Dean of The Bernard and Anne Spitzer School of Architecture at The City College of New York.

House of the Year

Our House of the Year shortlist was announced on 31 October, with accompanying films receiving over 1 million views; becoming our most successful social media content of all time. The winner, Six Columns, designed by Will Burges, Director of 31/44 Architects, was announced on 3 December 2024.

2024 was a period of consolidation and preparation as we focused on developing a fundraising plan to deliver our most significant fundraising campaign in a century. The success of this campaign is vital not only to achieve our House of Architecture ambitions but also to secure a sustainable future for our collections, cultural programmes and activities. With significant investment already assigned by our Board of Trustees to begin the House of Architecture workstreams, we demonstrated our commitment and belief in the critical importance and value of this programme. Over the next four years we seek to build the philanthropic support we need to make this a reality.

Honorary Fellowships

Our 2024 Honorary Fellows were announced on 18 April and presented with their Fellowships in a private ceremony on 12 June.

Donations and fundraising

Philanthropic support has long been valued by RIBA in supporting our charitable objectives, and 2024 was no exception, with welcome support towards our cultural activities across our library and collections, public programmes and education bursaries for students. We are most grateful to those who have made donations to support our work in these areas. We are also honoured to have received generous gifts through legacies.

With planning now underway to shape and deliver the House of Architecture vision, the support and partnership of others will be more vital than ever. We registered with the Fundraising Regulator for the first time in the autumn, signing up to the Code of Fundraising Practice and demonstrating our commitment to be open, honest and respectful in all our activities.

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Architecture Against the Odds exhibition © Agnese Sanvito

RIBA — Annual Report and Financial Statements December 2024

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Theme 3 Developing a high-performing organisation

33 RIBA — Annual Report and Financial Statements December 2024

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Equity, diversity & inclusion

We ensured that equity, diversity and inclusion were central to our internal development. By looking inward and outward, we explored ways of making our own products, services and processes more inclusive and accessible.

Highlights included:

• Launching our Equality Impact Assessment (EqIA) programme and guidance to measure equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) objectives across our policies, products and services

• Working with RIBA Communities and our HR team, we helped improve our own internal practices and policies to be more inclusive and make RIBA a place where colleagues feel valued. This included doubling our parental leave allocation and developing our menopause and bereavement policies

• We supported both virtual and in-person events hosted by our RIBA Communities for important calendar dates throughout the year, including Eid Al-Adha, ‘crafternoon’ sessions, walk and talks, potlucks and online quizzes. This led to improved workplace wellbeing where colleagues from different departments had the opportunity to come together and learn more about each other and the work that each RIBA Community group is doing

• Working collaboratively with our B.E. Inclusive MoU group (RICS, RTPI, CIOB, ICE, LI), we developed a series of events and unified actions to promote inclusion and diversity across the built environment. For the first time, we marched as a group of over 200 attendees in the London Pride parade

• Following the success of delivering EDI training to all our colleagues, we extended this training to our Board members and volunteers, ensuring everyone has a better understanding of RIBA’s values in promoting a diverse and inclusive profession

• We launched our ‘Being Me’ speaker series with our RIBA Communities, inviting speakers to talk about their own lived experiences. Covering a range of topics such as disability advocacy, supporting colleagues experiencing menopause and awareness of issues for transgender colleagues, we were able to use the content of these talks to develop key guidance and policies alongside our Internal Communications and HR teams.

This was the team’s first experience of completing an EqIA and we weren’t altogether sure how to prepare; the EDI team took us through the process which was incredibly thought provoking. At the end it was so good to see the basis of an action plan that now informs all the important work we do in Professional Standards in respect of transparency and accessibility for all.

Dr Kristy MacDonald, Director of Professional Standards

These policies have been created as a result of Balance and other RIBA Community members spending a lot of time researching, discussing in the group and negotiating with HR, as well as securing vital advocates in senior positions. I want to say a huge thank you to all involved; it shows what positive progress can be made when we work together.

Abigail MacDougall, Balance Chair and RIBA Head of Content

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RIBA Origins Community celebrate Eid al Adha © RIBA 36 RIBA — Annual Report and Financial Statements December 2024

Products and services

2024 saw the first full year of results for the newly formed Products and Services directorate.

As a directorate we continued to review and re-shape our product and services offering, but also worked to operate more efficiently and effectively and to combine products and services offerings in innovative ways to support our members as individuals and their businesses in the UK and internationally.

We implemented new business models and rationalised some activity but also introduced new, more relevant, roles fit for the future to expand our commercial development. We had a particular focus on international development, especially in the Gulf, including establishing a new business operating partnership with Eye of Cities, and working with the Architectural and Design Commission MoU. Our focus in the Gulf has been primarily on continuing professional development alongside our Part 3 programme, which is also successful in Southeast Asia, a market where we are also set to expand.

Key highlights include:

• Financial performance – a very strong financial performance for 2024, closing with revenue of over £11m (reflected across Confidence, Competency and Other trading activities in the statement of financial activities), representing £2m increase on 2023. The direct surplus of £2.9m was just short of £1m increased on 2023.

This is an outstanding performance by the directorate and reflected the successful implementation of our new commercial strategy for the UK and the Gulf.

Review of Products and Services – as part of the continuing improvement programme, we held a review of all our products and services by an independent agency, which included member and client research and focus groups. This work is yielding a new and exciting approach to how we take those products and services to our members, in a better and more meaningful way with less volume and better quality, leading to clarity in our offer

• Continuing professional development went from strength to strength and we experienced strong growth in 2024, ensuring that we had an excellent year, doubling the budgeted revenue. We also saw an increase in user satisfaction, with 90% of delegates rating the CPD as good to excellent. We also set up 10,850 new CPD accounts via our online Academy, with more than 38,000 registrants, and over 140,000 delegates attending live and on-demand CPD programmes. Both our Future Leaders and Guerilla Tactics flagship events sold out rapidly for 2024, with new formats and hosting making the events a huge success with an excellence rating of over 98%

• Principal Designer – work continued to grow our offering with 2,234 course sign-ups (webinar and on-demand), 300 assessments (General and Higher Risk Buildings (HRB)), 3,158 sales of our Principal Designer books, and 1,627 sales of our Health and Safety Guide

• Book publishing – We published 21 new books in 2024, and our publishing sales exceeded £1.1 million for the first time. We published four titles which were shortlisted for the Architectural Book Awards:

• 100 Women in Architecture

• Thrive: A field guide for women in architecture

• High Streets: How our town centres can bounce back from the retail crisis

• Dulwich: Mid-century Oasis.

The winner was Dulwich: Mid-century Oasis; we were delighted with this achievement, as were the authors:

• Paul Davis

• Ian McInnes

• Catherine Samy.

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Products and services

• Strategic Agreement with the Architecture and Design Commission (ADC) – we were proud to announce a fiveyear strategic agreement with the ADC to its members and those of the Saudi Council of Engineers to provide CPD through the RIBA Academy in Saudi Arabia. We plan to provide existing CPD and contextualised and co-developed CPD from 2025. This is one of the key outcomes of our MoU with the ADC.

• Trade Mission to Cityscape 2024 – our highlight of the year was taking over 55 delegates on a trade mission with the Department of Business and Trade (DBT) in the UK to Cityscape 2024 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The delegates came from RIBA Chartered Practices and our CPD Providers Network. We hosted a significant exhibition stand at Cityscape, which included a business lounge sponsored by the DBT that allowed our Chartered Practices and CPD Providers Network members to hold business meetings, to present and to engage. We held two major events, with over 400 delegates attending during that period, and a Gulf Member dinner while there. We also held a RIBA and Architecture Design Commission ‘Urban Transformation’ competition and charrette.

• Corporate Partnerships – we changed our sponsorship and corporate partnership models and introduced 16 new corporate partners for RIBAJ in 2024. We have a new team and approach and are growing this work internationally

• Design Competitions – our Competitions team was proud to win the opportunity to run the competition for the Grenfell Memorial project, which will subsequently see a firm selected to design the memorial. This is incredibly important in helping the friends and families of the 79 people who lost their lives to start to heal while always having somewhere to remember them. We also undertook a range of UK and international competitions throughout the year, including a Masai Mara Visitors Centre in Kenya.

Our business team saw ‘RIBA Contracts Digital’ moved into its portfolio this year. We had our best year of uptake in £1.1m+ 400 RIBA Contracts, resulting from positive changes to the RIBA publishing sales in 2024 Contracts portfolio, including: two major events – Launching the new RIBA Building Regulations Principal Designer Professional Services Contract, both in print and digital formats 10,850 – Updating all the other RIBA Professional Services Updating all the other RIBA Professional Services new CPD accounts via our online Academy

• Our business team saw ‘RIBA Contracts Digital’ moved into its portfolio this year. We had our best year of uptake in RIBA Contracts, resulting from positive changes to the RIBA Contracts portfolio, including:

delegates attending two major events

• Updating all the other RIBA Professional Services Updating all the other RIBA Professional Services Contracts so they now align with the Building Safety Act and comply with the requirements of Part 2A of the Building Regulations.

• RIBA Stirling Prize – Autodesk signed up for a second year as headline sponsor and corporate partner for the RIBA Stirling Prize 2024 ceremony with over 600 guests at the Roundhouse in London. This was our biggest ever Stirling Prize event.

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Products and services

• RIBAJ continued to go from strength to strength and went through a strategic review in 2024 by Think Publishing, including member consultations and review and engagement through the RIBA’s Council and Board. Changes to RIBAJ will be announced during 2025, but we did say goodbye to our technical supplement, Products in Practice (PiP), at the end of 2024, which is now amalgamated into RIBAJ and will take on a new life with a new specification area in RIBAJ’s new website in late 2025.

RIBAJ advertising sales – having outsourced our advertising sales to a business partner, we have seen an increase in new and more diverse customers. This is excellent news. Now we have the partnership evolving and becoming more established, we have significant optimism for increased advertising sales, which should contribute to the cost of production of RIBAJ.

• RIBAJ’s circulation continued to grow and expand, with increased growth:

• In physical and digital copies. We circulated 237,317 copies of RIBAJ, 10,637 of which were overseas. This mirrors growth in 2023 and reflects the status of membership retention

• Our digital profile also increased, along with digital advertising. We continued to deliver special activities including the MacEwen Award, Rising Stars Award, Future Writers, Eyeline and Products in Practice webinars during the year.

• We launched our first international RIBAJ supplement

• for the Gulf in November 2024 and it supported the 15th anniversary of our Gulf Chapter

• We launched RIBA Horizons 2034 , sponsored by Autodesk, which is thought leadership work led by highprofile researchers focused on looking at how the global marketplace will change in the next 10 years running up to RIBA’s 200th birthday

• Venues business – we increased our revenue on commercial venue bookings at 66 Portland Place by over £500K, from more than 130 bookings, against a backdrop of over 600 events managed by RIBA’s own teams.

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People

We continued our investment in attracting and retaining a diverse community of talented colleagues, to enable us to become a highperforming, innovative organisation and fostering great outcomes for our members.

Highlights included:

Strengthening leadership and management development

We prioritised leadership and management development, equipping our leaders and managers with the skills to drive engagement, innovation and performance. We delivered targeted leadership programmes to foster a culture of accountability, collaboration and continuous learning.

The plan of action following Management Development Programme (MDP) delivery in 2024 has been to encourage managers to utilise their training for effective people/team conversations via the Performance Development Review (PDR) cycle and 1:1s. PDRs will be evaluated throughout the year, each quarter.

There is further training planned for 2025 across HR & Finance processes & Safeguarding (Governance).

We will undertake a pulse ‘employee engagement survey’ to evidence feedback of line managers and culture, following the investment of MDP in 2024/early 2025.

Advancing equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI)

Our commitment to equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI) remained a key focus, with organisation-wide training designed to create a more inclusive workplace. While there is still more to do, through structured EDI initiatives and training, we continue to build a culture where all employees feel valued, respected and empowered.

Enhancing performance and development reviews

To drive meaningful growth, we implemented a new approach to performance and development reviews, ensuring a more transparent, constructive and future-focused process. Our revamped performance framework promotes continuous feedback, career progression and identifies our top talent, in alignment with our strategic priorities and guiding values.

Evolving HR policies for a modern workforce

We undertook a comprehensive review of our HR policies to ensure they align with our evolving workforce needs and reinforce our Employee Value Proposition (EVP). By modernising our HR policies, we are fostering a more agile, fairer and employee-centric workplace.

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Employee engagement

We employ several methods to engage with colleagues, supported by a range of communication channels.

A combination of in-person and virtual meetings were held with all colleagues on a regular basis, led by the leadership team and featuring presentations by representatives from across the organisation, plus live Q&As. ‘Knowledge Exchange’ sessions were also programmed and open to all colleagues, as an opportunity to share updates and insight into the work of specific teams.

Our communication channels include a regularly updated intranet, fortnightly e-newsletters, an organisation-wide messaging channel on Microsoft Teams, and organisation-wide emails for key updates. An email was sent to all employees each day to highlight news stories impacting RIBA and the wider architecture profession.

Governance

We implemented a new governance framework to ensure that RIBA is fit for purpose and adheres to best practice. Good governance is fundamental to our success and is vital to ensure compliance with legal and regulatory requirements. Additionally, we carried out a comprehensive review of our company structure with particular attention to our noncharitable subsidiaries and overseas entities. We made great efforts to simplify our company structure to ensure that it remains compliant with Charity Commission guidance on public benefit and applicable legislative requirements.

Key highlights include:

• Implementing a new corporate governance framework

• Successfully delivering national and regional elections Carrying out a comprehensive review of our company structure and

• Introducing new Regulations, which came into effect 1 January 2025.

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Technology

Work continued on our journey of Digital Transformation, with the building of our new website and shopping cart experience on track to go live in Autumn 2025, as well as our new learning platform. We are also making significant investments in replacing the legacy technology that underpins our membership and renewal experience, as well as removing dependencies on 66 Portland Place as a location to host our servers and data.

Key highlights include:

• Designing and building a new website and eCommerce platform that will in future enable all our digital and physical products to be sourced online from a single unified platform

• A new virtual learning environment that brings together RIBA Academy and Continuous Professional Development recording into one platform

• Initiating work to shape a programme to replace and modernise our back office technology – the key systems that underpin our membership journey and experience

• Commencing an ambitious project to relocate all our legacy hosted servers and data from end-of-life hardware based at 66 Portland Place to secure a resilient external public cloud hosting environments

We made steps to become a digital–first organisation and agreed an ambitious programme of work to improve our infrastructure, including a database platform that will enable us to better provide tailored information and services to members.

Key highlights include:

• Identifying key areas of digital, data and technology investment

• Installing conferencing solutions at 66 Portland Place to provide improved hybrid working arrangements

• Developing ambitious digital House of Architecture plans to transform our technology and improve the online experience for our members.

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Energy and carbon reporting RIBA 43 RIBA - Annual Report and Financial Statements December 2024 Architecture.com

Streamlined Energy and Carbon Reporting (SECR)

The carbon footprint Scope 1 and 2 for the year ended 31 December 2024 was 421.66 tonnes of CO emission 2 (2022: 543 tCO2, 2023: 403.5 tCO2) which represents a carbon intensity of 1.85 tCO2 per full time equivalent employee (2022: 1.70 tCO2, 2023: 1.62 tCO2).

Although no environmental improvement works took place

in 2024 – as the site was preparing to close in September 2025 – significant enhancements remain a key priority. Central to the programme is the upgrade of the building management system (BMS) , enabling smarter and more responsive environmental control.

Energy efficiency actions

Alongside this, RIBA plans to install heat pumps and fully transition the building to an all-electric, gas-free operation. The rationalisation of HVAC systems and comprehensive optimisation of heating, ventilation and air conditioning is another pivotal focus area.

emissions The 2024 scope data shows a 4.3% increase in CO2 compared to the 2023 data.

RIBA is committed to the improvement of its environmental performance. The House of Architecture programme will help RIBA improve its energy efficiency, rationalise the number of Collection sites in use, and eliminate the use of gas consumption at the 66 Portland Place site.

These measures align with RIBA’s broader environmental ambitions, including the 2030 Climate Challenge, and reflect best practice in sustainable retrofit and low-carbon building operation.

The table below summarises emissions in the year.

Emission Type	Quantity (KWh) Dec 2024	Carbon Footprint (CO2e) Dec 2024
Scope 1: Combustion	1,222,261	223.6
Scope 2: Purchased Energy	956,593	198.06
Total Quantity	2,178,854	421.66

Methodology

Our reporting methodology is based on the UK Government’s 2019 Environmental Reporting Guidelines, and the measured emissions sources have been calculated based on the principle of the Greenhouse Gas Protocol.

Energy use data was collected from energy bills; all of the electricity at the three sites is from renewable sources. We have excluded all managed offices where we do not receive a separate charge for energy (which includes the Group’s overseas offices).

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Financial Review RIBA 45 RIBA - Annual Report and Financial Statements December 2024 Architecture.com

The purpose of this financial review is to assist readers with interpreting the Financial Statements presented later (see pages 62 to 64), the format of which is as specified by the accounting Statement of Recommended Practice (‘SORP’) used by charities. To supplement this, the information presented below in bold are headings used in the Consolidated Statement of Financial Activities (the ‘SOFA’) shown on page 62.

15%

Total income % increased by 15% RIBA — Annual Report and Financial Statements December 2024

Total income increased in the year by 15%/£4.0m to £30.7m.

This was mainly due to £2.4m higher charitable income, £0.7m increase in investment income to £5.8m, (2023: £5.0m). Trading income grew by 7% to £7.0m (2023: £6.6m). Donations income increased by 59.0% to £0.4m (2023: £0.2m).

Membership subscription income grew by 3.0% to £9.0m (2023: £8.8m) with membership numbers at year end 57,266 (student numbers will be validated during 2025).

Total expenditure on ordinary activities increased by £4.5m in the year to £32.9m.

The large contributors were an increase of £4.5m in the charitable activities and associated support costs; this included £1.4m of House of Architecture programme costs and £0.6m of one-off strategic project expenditure.

Cost of raising funds increased by £0.1m, and a reduction in defined benefit pension finance costs, including actuarial remeasurements, accounted for £0.2m of cost reduction.

The number of full-time equivalent (FTE) staff increased from 250 to 256, with additional resource to support the House of Architecture programme. Total staff costs increased by £1.5m, due to annual pay rise, redundancy payments, and additional staff for the House of Architecture programme. Other contributing factors include inflation-driven salary revisions and expanded employee benefits.

The net movement in funds improved from a £1.8m favourable figure in 2023 to a £5.1m favourable figure in 2024.

In addition, RIBA’s strong balance sheet includes £122.6m of investment funds (2023, £124m) and heritage assets, valued at £267m.

Operating surplus of £59k before strategic expenditure.

After adjusting for the House of Architecture programme expenditure of £1.4m and transformational strategic project expenditure of £0.6m, to enable future growth, the resulting 2024 unrestricted operating position was for a small surplus of £59k.

	After adjusting for the House of Architecture programme expenditure of £1.4m and transformational strategic project expenditure of £0.6m, to enable future growth, the resulting 2024 unrestricted operating position was for a small surplus of £59k.	After adjusting for the House of Architecture programme expenditure of £1.4m and transformational strategic project expenditure of £0.6m, to enable future growth, the resulting 2024 unrestricted operating position was for a small surplus of £59k.
	This was in line with our budget position to achieve a balanced
	operational budget, for the second consecutive year.	Unrestricted 2024
		£’000
	Operating surplus before projects	59
	House of Architecture	(1,350)
	Strategic projects	(653)
	Net gains on investments Net movement in funds	6,520 4,576

46

Total income

£30.7m

The following chart shows the year-on-year income movement. 2024 2023

Year-on-year movement

The following chart presents RIBA’s 2024 generated income from multiple sources, with the largest contribution coming from individual subscriptions, totalling £9.0m. Trading activities provided £7.0m, while charitable activities accounted for £8.5m. Interest and dividends added £5.8m to the overall income. Additionally, donations contributed £0.4m, reflecting support from external supporters.

1. Individual subscriptions £9.0m

2. Trading activities £7.0m

3. Charitable activities £8.5m

4. Interest and dividends £5.8m

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5
4
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2
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3

£10m

£9m

£8m

£7m

£6m

£5m £4m £3m

£2m £1m £0m

Individual subscriptions

Trading activities

Charitable Investment Donations activities and dividends

1. Donations £0.4m

47 RIBA — Annual Report and Financial Statements December 2024

Financial Review

Income (i.e. Where RIBA’s money comes from)

RIBA is a UK-registered charity, set up under Royal Charter. It is a membership organisation with strong commercial operations and a large investment fund, helping contribute to central operating costs and future investment plans.

RIBA received total Income of £30.7m (2023: £26.8m); this excludes a £7.1m unrealised gain on investment holdings and a £0.2m actuarial gain on the defined benefit pension scheme.

Within the £30.7m total income figure, £9.0m was generated from membership subscriptions (2023, £8.8m).

£7.0 million came from other trading activities

(2023, £6.6m), which includes income generated by the Venues business based in RIBA’s headquarters building at 66 Portland Place, commercial income, publishing income and retail income.

Other charitable activities generated £8.5m (2023: £6.1m) income. This income has been allocated to two of the three groupings of strategic priorities; examples of income in respect of each of these are below.

Competency (Education, Research, Knowledge & Data)

• Competitions and publications, continuing professional development (CPD) courses, CPD Providers Network, and RIBA Chartered Practice.

Confidence (Advocacy, Policy & Influence, D&I, Culture)

• Talks and lectures, architecture festivals, design reviews and the Awards programme, RIBApix sales and royalty income.

Donations and legacies contributed £0.4m income

(2023: £0.2m).

Investment income (interest received and dividends) of £5.8m was received in 2024 (2023: £5.1m); these funds are managed professionally in diversified portfolios.

£7.0m

£0.4m

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Total expenditure

£32.9m

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4
2
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Total expenditure of £32.9m (2023: £28.5m) is broken down into charitable expenditure of £26.5m (2023: £22m), cost of raising funds of £6.2m (2023: £6.1m) and pension finance costs of £0.2m (2023: £0.4m).

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2
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1. Charitable activities – Confidence

2. Charitable activities – Competency

3. Charitable activities – Cashflow

4. Raising funds

5. Pension finance costs

Competency (Education, Research, Knowledge & Data) Confidence (Advocacy, Policy & Influence, D&I, Culture) Cashflow (Practice & Business Skills, Delivery)

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1
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The table below shows more £26.5m specifically where the charitable expenditure has been spent.

1. Premises & Facilities £4.0m

----- Start of picture text -----
1. Premises & Facilities £4.0m
2. Governance £1.1m
3. President & Group Exec
11
£1.3m 10 1
9
4. Finance, Business Planning, 2
HR, ICT £7.6m 8
3
5. Membership & Client
Services £3.4m 7
6. Practice & Profession £1.1m
6
4
7. Communications, Policy
5
& Public Affairs £2.0m
8. Library £1.7m
9. Education & Research £2.1m
----- End of picture text -----

1. Celebration of Good Architecture £0.6m

2. £1.8m

3. 1. Network of Offices

RIBA — Annual Report and Financial Statements December 2024

49

Financial Review

Expenditure (i.e. how RIBA spends its money)

Expenditure on raising funds is effectively the costs of running the RIBA’s commercial operations which generate the trading income above. Total expenditure on raising funds was £6.2m (2023: £6.1m).

Expenditure on charitable activities is allocated to one of the three strategic priorities. This included £1.4m of House of Architecture programme costs and £0.6m of Strategic project expenditure.

Expenditure on Pension Finance costs were £0.2m (2023: £0.4m); these were directly offset with a £0.2m gain onthe scheme.

Gains and losses

The listed investments held by RIBA generated a £7.1m unrealised net gain due to market movements (2023: £3.2m unrealised net gain). The Investments Fund has been set up with performance targets and with a diverse portfolio in order to manage risk over the medium term and enable funding of the House of Architecture programme, while allowing investment income to be used to help fund charitable activities and other priorities.

Pension scheme funding reserve

RIBA operates a defined contribution pension scheme whereby it pays a percentage of employees’ salaries into a pension scheme and has no further liability. However, it historically provided a defined benefit (or final salary) pension scheme to its employees, whereby the pension received relates to the number of years’ service and the salary paid on leaving the company’s employment. Although this latter scheme was closed to new employees back in 1994 and now has no active members, it is subject to fund value volatility.

Note 25 shows that the actuarial valuation provides a £8.7m surplus (2023 £9.7m) resulting in an overall actuarial valuation that is capped to £0m (2023: £0m capped).

Every three years, the Pension Scheme has a full actuarial valuation, the trustees of the Pension Scheme and RIBA trustees agree the valuation of the surplus or deficit, and a contribution (or deficit funding) schedule.

The last full triennial valuation of the scheme, as at 31 December 2022, valued the surplus at £4.5m. The next full triennial valuation will be prepared as at 31 December 2025.

The actuarial movement on the defined benefit pension scheme was a £0.2m gain (2023: £0.4m gain); the fund is still in surplus.

Net movement in funds

Overall, the net movement in funds during the year was a £5.1m surplus (2023: £1.8m surplus).

Balance sheet

The Balance Sheet on page 63, shows the value of RIBA’s assets as at 31 December 2024; net assets have increased by £5.1m during the last 12 months, to £409.8m (2023: £404.7m).

The most significant item is the value placed upon RIBA’s cultural (or heritage) assets comprising drawings, paintings, busts, books, periodicals, photographs and other archives. While the balance sheet includes the value of the materials in the RIBA Collections, this does not mean that either this value could be realised or that the material in the collections could in fact be sold. Conditions relating to the original acquisition of material by RIBA going back to 1834, RIBA’s standing as a cultural organisation, and its need as an accredited museum to follow the Museums Association’s Code of Ethics relating to disposal (which presumes against any financially motivated disposal), mean that any sale of items from the collection would be contrary to RIBA’s policies and highly restricted.

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Financial Review

A heritage asset is defined as “a tangible asset with historical, artistic, scientific, technological, geophysical or environmental qualities that is held and maintained principally for its contribution to knowledge and culture”. The value placed on such assets as at 31 December 2024 is £266.7m (2023: £266.5 m). RIBA considers itself responsible for ensuring the continued preservation of the archives and collections for future generations, and the House of Architecture programme includes plans to improve public accessibility.

Investments of £122.6m (2023: £124.1m) include both restricted and unrestricted investments. £112.2m of this is held in an Investment Fund that was created in 2021 from the proceeds of the sale of Williams TopCo Ltd (NBS).

RIBA has total debtors of £3.8m (2023: £3.1m), which includes amounts owed from sponsors, customers and RIBA members, in addition to prepayments and accrued income.

RIBA has total creditors within one year of £6.8m (2023: £6.6m), which includes amounts owed to suppliers and accrued expenditure.

Cash flows

During the year there was a net increase in cash of £2.8m to increase cash and cash equivalent holdings at the year end to £5.8m (2023: £3.0m).

Basis of preparation

The financial statements have been prepared on the basis of the accounting policies set out in note 1 to the financial statements and comply with the Royal Charter, applicable law and the requirements of the Statement of Recommended Practice, ‘Accounting and Reporting by Charities’.

Going concern

The financial statements have been prepared on the basis that RIBA has adequate resources to continue in operational existence for the foreseeable future (going concern basis), with assets and liabilities recognised as they will be realised and discharged in the normal course of business.

In support of this assumption, the Investment Fund valued at £112.2m provides enough funding to cover any financial uncertainties over the 12 months following accounts signing and beyond. Given the size of the investment fund, the trustees have concluded that the entity is a going concern.

Risk management

RIBA maintains a clear and cohesive Strategic Risk Register, linked to business priorities and strategic objectives.

This extends to a risk register for the House of Architecture programme, to ensure effective governance, programme structure and effective decision making.

Each strategic risk is owned by a member of the Executive Team and they are regularly reviewed by the Executive Team, the RIBA Board, and the Audit and Risk Committee. The degree of risk is measured by considering likelihood and impact.

RIBA regularly assess operating environment and will add or remove risks along with associated mitigations as required. As far as possible, we incorporate risk mitigations into our business-as-usual activities, reinforcing the message that risk management is the responsibility of all staff. Shortand medium-term additional governance structures are introduced for high-value projects and programmes as appropriate.

RIBA is satisfied that risks are managed and mitigated, and where necessary, action is taken to contain the impact of risk. We are confident that our risk management approach has been comprehensive, allowing the Executive Team to identify early, and respond to, any possible threats to ensure the achievement of our objectives.

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Key risks and mitigations

Risk title and description	Mitigation and controls
Competition	• Differentiation of RIBA’s services to reinforce the value of products in the market
Increased external competition	• Communications campaign to members and wider public
encroaching on RIBA’s operating model.	• Lobbying strategy to central Government
Collections	• Regular inspections
Damage to the collection from a natural event	• Training for staff on moving equipment safely
including any increased repair and insurance costs.	• Safe, secure and distributed storage facilities including a range of climate and environmental controls • Industry accreditation and inspections
House of Architecture programme	• Dedicated programme management and governance
Risk that project overruns, costs are higher and unable to meet targets from fundraising.	• Cashfow assurance received before signing contracts • Regular forecasting to establish cashfow movements • Fundraising strategy and governance developed, including campaign plan, case for support, recognition plan and engagement plan • Contingency plan to underwrite fundraising (including access to funds)
IT outage	• All IT services moving to cloud
An IT outage resulting in a severe disruption of services, along	• Continual review of cybersecurity
with associated fnancial and operational consequences.	• Contingency plans in place through Business Continuity.

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52

Financial Review

Investment policy

Lane Clark Peacock LLP advise RIBA on its investment policy for the Investment Fund. All investments managers appointed go through a selection programme that also requires the Ethical Social and Governance aims of RIBA to be fulfilled.

RIBA’s investment policy is based on guidance from RIBA’s investment managers with individual target returns set for each fund. For 2024 the annualised portfolio returns of 8.8% exceeded the benchmark of 7.8%. The fund is invested on a balanced basis with the objective of maintaining its real value and generating a return appropriate to the risk profile of the investments. A significant portion of the fund will be used to pay for the substantial House of Architecture programme, leaving part of the fund as a long-term portfolio generating returns to support the future charitable activities and other RIBA priorities.

The RIBA defined benefit pension scheme has a separate investment strategy overseen by the pension scheme trustees, who are an independent body.

Reserves policy

All charities need to have reserves to underwrite their day-today activities. The level of reserves held is a matter of

judgement for the trustees, who have decided to take a riskbased approach to determining the level of reserves required. The target level for unrestricted general reserves has been assessed after considering the following key factors:

• Reliability of its income, and

• Flexibility of its costs in terms of whether they are fixed or variable.

The target for general reserves at the end of 2024 remains between £3m and £5m. The level of general reserves at the end of the year was £6m, (2023: £5.6m), with the additional reserves held being intended to support strategic investments in 2025 including replacing Customer Relationship Management System (CRM), Finance, HR, Payroll and Procurement systems.

The heritage assets reserves show the value of heritage assets that RIBA holds is £266.7m as at December 2024 (2023: £266.5m). While the balance sheet includes the value of the materials in the RIBA Collections, any sale of items from the collection would be contrary to RIBA’s policies and highly restricted.

The Fixed Asset reserve represents the net book value of fixed assets after taking into account the revaluation reserve.

The investment fund reserve is a designated reserve, created after the sale of Williams TopCo Ltd (NBS), which generated £112.7m cash proceeds. It was valued at £112.2m at the end of December 2024 (£111.5m 2023). The intention of the

fund is to finance the House of Architecture programme not supported through fundraising and provide RIBA with a perpetual income stream through investment returns that will be used to support the cultural programme of activities and other high-priority activities.

The revaluation reserve was created in 1987 for a revaluation of 66 Portland Place.

Therevaluation reservewas created in 1987 for a revaluation of 66 Portland Place.	Therevaluation reservewas created in 1987 for a revaluation of 66 Portland Place.	Therevaluation reservewas created in 1987 for a revaluation of 66 Portland Place.
The level of reserves held provides comfort that RIBA will
remain in a strong fnancial position. As at the end of 2024
the level of unrestricted reserves held were:
	2024 £’000	2023 £’000
Heritage assets reserves	266,678	265,740
Fixed assets reserve	11,418	8,851
Investment fund	112,168	111,496
Revaluation reserves	6,316	6,380
General reserves	6,015	5,553
Total unrestricted funds	402,595	398,020

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53

Financial Review

Permanent endowment funds are invested to generate income, which is then allocated to separate funds such as education, the library, and other designated areas.

Restricted funds are designated for specific purposes, primarily supporting education and funding the library/ collections. They can only be used for the purpose for which they were originally allocated.

Fundraising

Supporters of RIBA are a key element in the fundraising activities, including supporting the House of Architecture programme, and we are committed to employing a transparent and ethical approach to all fundraising activities.

RIBA registered with the Fundraising Regulator in 2024, signing up to the Code of Fundraising Practice. No professional fundraisers or commercial participators were used to approach individuals on behalf of RIBA in 2024.

Subsidiaries

RIBA has two main wholly owned subsidiaries, both of which are incorporated in the UK. RIBA Financial Services Ltd, company no 04604947, is 100% owned by RIBA 1834 Ltd, company no 04604934.

RIBA 1834 Limited made an operating loss during the course of the year of £88k (2023: £71k profit). The profit in each year is normally gift aided to RIBA if possible.

In 2024, RIBA Financial Services Limited made a profit of £368k (2023: profit of £320k). The profit gift aided to RIBA in 2024 was £368k (2023: £320k).

After 2024 year end, the directors filed notice to strike off RIBA Financial Services Limited in May 2025 and continue all trading activities through RIBA 1834 Limited. The strike off date was 19th August 2025 and the dissolution date was 26th August 2025.

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Structure, governance and management

The role of the Council is to be the representative body of the membership of RIBA, to provide strategic advice and guidance to the Board and to hold the Board to account. There are up to 51 RIBA Council Members in total during any session (from 1 September to 31 August). Council Members are elected by RIBA members as stated in the Regulations. Council Members generally serve an initial three-year term and may be appointed for further three-year terms.

Structure

RIBA was incorporated by Royal Charter (its Trust Deed, by which it is governed) in 1834 and was registered as a charity on 14 August 1962 (Registration Number 210566). A list of current trustees is included on page 107, together with a list of principal advisors on page 105.

Throughout 2024, RIBA had two main subsidiary companies, RIBA 1834 Ltd and RIBA Financial Services Ltd.

Board and Council may delegate elements of their respective functions, decision-making authority and the implementation of agreed activities to committees, advisory groups and/or individuals. The Board has two mandatory committees – the Audit & Risk Committee, which reports to both Council and Board, and the Remuneration Committee which reports to Board. Council also has two mandatory committees – the Standards Committee and the Nominations Committee.

Governance

The Board of Trustees is responsible for the management of RIBA’s business and are the charity trustees of RIBA. The Board of Trustees works closely with the Council, which is made up of elected representatives of the membership, and the Executive team, headed by the CEO, to whom the day-today management of the charity is delegated.

RIBA is committed to a rigorous and transparent process for recruiting, inducting and providing ongoing training for trustees, ensuring they are well equipped to uphold our values and drive our mission forward.

There are up to 12 trustees, the majority of whom must be Council Members. Trustees may, but are not required to be, Chartered Members of RIBA. The President, Honorary Secretary and Honorary Treasurer are trustees ex officio. The additional nine trustees are appointed by the Council, following recommendations from the Nominations Committee. RIBA Board members generally serve an initial three-year term and may be appointed for further three-year terms.

Management

RIBA’s Chief Executive has a number of delegated powers and reports directly to the RIBA Board. Members of the Group Executive and Senior Staff teams are listed on pages 104 and 105.

Remuneration Policy

A formal policy is in place to govern the setting of pay for key management personnel, ensuring transparency and consistency in remuneration decisions. RIBA’s Board sets the pay of the Chief Executive, based on independent benchmarking advice. The Executive Directors’ pay is also independently benchmarked and determined by the Chief Executive and Remuneration Committee where appropriate. Any changes to the remuneration of other posts are made in accordance with internal remuneration policy and procedures. The annual pay review was determined by the RIBA Board.

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Structure, governance and management

Equity, diversity and inclusion

Statement of the trustees’ responsibilities

RIBA continues to be committed to ensuring that we have an equitable, diverse and inclusive workplace. We have four active employee EDI communities supporting our work in this area and helping to embed progress.

The trustees are responsible for preparing the trustees’ report and the financial statements in accordance with applicable law and the Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland (Financial Reporting Standard 102).

We are continuing our focus on building a more inclusive and equitable culture so that all of our colleagues feel welcome, valued and included. We are delivering on our aims to reduce our gender and ethnicity pay gaps but recognise we still have work to do to close them completely.

The law applicable to charities in England and Wales requires the trustees to prepare financial statements for each financial year which give a true and fair view of the state of affairs of the charity and the Group and of the incoming resources and application of resources of the Group for that period. In preparing these financial statements, the trustees are required to:

Engagement with employees

• Select suitable accounting policies and then apply them consistently

We employ a number of methods to engage with colleagues, supported by a range of communication channels. A combination of in-person and virtual meetings were held with all colleagues on a regular basis, led by the leadership team. Communication channels include a regularly updated intranet, e-newsletters, an organisation-wide messaging channel, and organisation-wide emails for key updates.

• Observe the methods and principles in the Charities SORP

• Make judgements and estimates that are reasonable and prudent

• State whether applicable accounting standards have been followed, subject to any material departures disclosed and explained in the financial statements; and

Colleague Representatives (‘Reps’) are appointed to represent each area of the organisation. Reps have the opportunity to share colleague feedback at regular meetings and make suggestions to the leadership team on potential opportunities to improve the colleague experience and engagement.

• Prepare the financial statements on the going concern basis unless it is inappropriate to presume that the charity will continue in operation.

The trustees are responsible for keeping proper accounting records that disclose with reasonable accuracy at any time the financial position of the charity and enable them to ensure that the financial statements comply with the Charities Act 2011, the Charity (Accounts and Reports) Regulations 2008 and the provisions of the trust deed. They are also responsible for safeguarding the assets of the charity and the Group and hence for taking reasonable steps for the prevention and detection of fraud and other irregularities.

The trustees are responsible for the maintenance and integrity of the charity and financial information included on the charity’s website. Legislation in the United Kingdom governing the preparation and dissemination of financial statements may differ from legislation in other jurisdictions.

The trustees’ annual report has been approved by the trustees and signed on their behalf by:

Jack Pringle Board Chair

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Independent auditor’s report to the members of the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA)

This has been done in order for the accounts to provide a true and fair view in accordance with the Generally Accepted Accounting Practice effective for reporting periods beginning on or after 1 January 2015.

Opinion

We have audited the financial statements of The Royal Institute of British Architects (‘the Parent Charity’) and its subsidiaries (the ‘Group’) for the year ended 31 December 2024 which comprise the Consolidated statement of financial activities, the Balance sheets, the Consolidated statement of cash flows and the notes to the financial statements, including significant accounting policies. The financial reporting framework that has been applied in their preparation is applicable law and United Kingdom Accounting Standards, including FRS 102 The Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland (United Kingdom Generally Accepted Accounting Practice).

In our opinion, the financial statements:

give a true and fair view of the state of the Group’s and Parent Charity’s affairs as at 31 December 2024 and of the Group’s incoming resources and application of resources, for the year then ended

have been properly prepared in accordance with United Kingdom Generally Accepted Accounting Practice

• have been prepared in accordance with the requirements of the Charities Act 2011

Basis for opinion

The financial statements have been prepared in accordance with Accounting and Reporting by Charities preparing their accounts in accordance with the Financial Reporting Standards applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland (FRS 102).

We conducted our audit in accordance with International Standards on Auditing (UK) (ISAs (UK)) and applicable law. Our responsibilities under those standards are further described in the Auditor’s responsibilities for the audit of the financial statements section of our report. We are independent of the Group and Parent Charity in accordance

with the ethical requirements that are relevant to our audit of the financial statements in the UK, including the FRC’s Ethical Standard and we have fulfilled our ethical responsibilities in accordance with requirements. We believe that the audit evidence we have obtained is sufficient and appropriate to provide a basis for our opinion.

Conclusions relating to going concern

In auditing the financial statements, we have concluded that the trustees’ use of the going concern basis of accounting in the preparation of the financial statements is appropriate.

Based on the work we have performed, we have not identified any material uncertainties relating to events or conditions that, individually or collectively, may cast significant doubt on Group’s or the Parent Charity’s ability to continue as a going concern for a period of at least twelve months from when the financial statements are authorised for issue.

Our responsibilities and the responsibilities of the trustees with respect to going concern are described in the relevant sections of this report.

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Independent auditor’s report to the members of the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA)

Other Information

Matters on which we are required to report by exception

The other information comprises the information included in the annual report, other than the financial statements and our Auditor’s Report thereon. The trustees are responsible for the other information contained within the Annual Report. Our opinion on the financial statements does not cover the other information and, except to the extent otherwise explicitly stated in our report, we do not express any form of assurance conclusion thereon. Our responsibility is to read the other information and, in doing so, consider whether the other information is materially inconsistent with the financial statements or our knowledge obtained in the course of the audit or otherwise appears to be materially misstated. If we identify such material inconsistencies or apparent material misstatements, we are required to determine whether this gives rise to a material misstatement in the financial statements themselves. If, based on the work we have performed, we conclude that there is a material misstatement of this other information, we are required to report that fact.

We have nothing to report in respect of the following matters in relation to which the Charities (Accounts and Reports) Regulations 2008 requires us to report to you if, in our opinion:

• the information given in the Trustees’ report is inconsistent in any material respect with the financial statements

• the Group or Parent Charity has not kept sufficient accounting records; or

• the Group or Parent Charity financial statements are not in agreement with the accounting records and returns; or

• we have not received all the information and explanations we require for our audit

We have nothing to report in this regard.

Responsibilities of trustees

As explained more fully in the Statement of Trustees’ Responsibilities, the trustees are responsible for the preparation of the financial statements and for being satisfied that they give a true and fair view, and for such internal control as the trustees determine is necessary to enable the preparation of financial statements that are free from material misstatement, whether due to fraud or error.

In preparing the financial statements, the trustees are responsible for assessing the Group and the Parent Charity’s ability to continue as a going concern, disclosing, as applicable, matters related to going concern and using the going concern basis of accounting unless the trustees either intend to liquidate the Group or the Parent Charity or to cease operations, or have no realistic alternative but to do so.

58 RIBA — Annual Report and Financial Statements December 2024

Independent auditor’s report to the members of the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA)

Auditor’s responsibilities for the audit of the financial statements

Irregularities, including fraud, are instances of non-compliance with laws and regulations. We design procedures in line with our responsibilities, outlined above, to detect material misstatements in respect of irregularities, including fraud. The specific procedures for this engagement and the extent to which these are capable of detecting irregularities, including fraud is detailed below:

We have been appointed as auditor under section 151 of the Charities Act 2011 and report in accordance with the Act and relevant regulations made or having effect thereunder.

Our objectives are to obtain reasonable assurance about whether the financial statements as a whole are free from material misstatement, whether due to fraud or error, and to issue an auditor’s report that includes our opinion. Reasonable assurance is a high level of assurance, but is not a guarantee that an audit conducted in accordance with ISAs (UK) will always detect a material misstatement when it exists. Misstatements can arise from fraud or error and are considered material if, individually or in the aggregate, they could reasonably be expected to influence the economic decisions of users taken on the basis of these financial statements.

• Obtained an understanding of the nature of the sector, including the legal and regulatory frameworks that the Group operates in and how the Group is complying with the legal and regulatory frameworks;

• Enquiry of management and those charged with governance to identify any instances of known or suspected instances of fraud;

• Enquiry of management and those charged with governance around actual and potential litigation and claims;

• Evaluating the business rationale of significant transactions outside the normal course of business;

• Reviewing minutes of meetings of those charged with governance;

• Reviewing internal audit reports;

• Reviewing accounting estimates for bias;

• Reviewing financial statement disclosures and testing to supporting documentation to assess compliance with applicable laws and regulations.

• Enquiry of staff in compliance functions to identify any instances of non-compliance with laws and regulations;

• Performing audit work over the risk of management override of controls, including testing of journal entries and other adjustments for appropriateness;

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Independent auditor’s report to the members of the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA)

Because of the inherent limitations of an audit, there is a risk that we will not detect all irregularities, including those leading to a material misstatement in the financial statements or non-compliance with regulation. This risk increases the more that compliance with a law or regulation is removed from the events and transactions reflected in the financial statements, as we will be less likely to become aware of instances of noncompliance. The risk is also greater regarding irregularities occurring due to fraud rather than error, as fraud involves intentional concealment, forgery, collusion, omission or misrepresentation.

A further description of our responsibilities is available on the Financial Reporting Council’s website at: www.frc.org.uk/auditorsresponsibilities. This description forms part of our auditor’s report.

60 RIBA — Annual Report and Financial Statements December 2024

Use of our report

This report is made solely to the Group and Parent Charity’s trustees, as a body, in accordance with section 144 of the Charities Act 2011 and regulations made under section 154 of that Act. Our audit work has been undertaken so that we might state to the Parent Charity’s trustees those matters we are required to state to them in an auditor’s report and for no other purpose. To the fullest extent permitted by law, we do not accept or assume responsibility to anyone other than the Parent Charity and the Parent Charity’s trustees as a body, for our audit work, for this report, or for the opinions we have formed.

MHA Statutory Auditor London, United Kingdom Date:

MHA is the trading name of MHA Audit Services LLP, a limited liability partnership in England and Wales (registered number OC455542).

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Consolidated statement of financial activities

For the year ended 31 December 2024

Income from: Donations and legacies Charitable activities Membership subscriptions Confdence (Advocacy, Policy & Infuence, D&I, Culture) Competency (Education, Research, Knowledge & Data) Other trading activities Investments	Unrestricted funds Restricted and endowed funds 2024 Total Unrestricted funds Restricted and endowed funds 2023 Total
	Note £’000 £’000 £’000 £’000 £’000 £’000
	105 289 394 30 218 248 9,047 – 9,047 8,750 – 8,750 1,612 86 1,697 922 43 965 6,740 14 6,753 5,122 – 5,122 2 7,025 – 7,025 6,580 – 6,580 5,639 169 5,808 4,918 170 5,088
Total income	30,168 557 30,725 26,322 431 26,753
Expenditure on: Raising funds Charitable activities Confdence (Advocacy, Policy & Infuence, D&I, Culture) Competency (Education, Research, Knowledge & Data) Cashfow (Practice & Business Skills, Delivery)	6,176 – 6,176 6,050 – 6,050 15,335 212 15,546 12,379 127 12,506 9,639 387 10,027 8,447 194 8,641 962 – 962 884 – 884
Total expenditure on ordinary activities before pension fnance costs Pension fnance costs	32,112 599 32,711 27,760 321 28,081 223 – 223 379 – 379
Total expenditure on ordinary activities	4 32,335 599 32,934 28,139 321 28,460
Net income/(expenditure) before net gains/(losses) on investments and exceptional items Net gains/(losses) on investments Exceptional items	(2,167) (42) (2,209) (1,817) 110 (1,707) 15 6,520 535 7,055 2,986 176 3,162
Net income/(expenditure) before other recognised gains and losses Actuarial gains/(losses) on defned beneft pension schemes	5 4,353 493 4,846 1,169 286 1,455 25 223 – 223 379 – 379
Net movement in funds Reconciliation of funds: Total funds brought forward	4,576 493 5,069 1,548 286 1,834 398,020 6,690 404,710 396,472 6,404 402,876
Total funds carried forward	402,596 7,183 409,779 398,020 6,690 404,710

There were no other recognised gains or losses other than those stated above. Movements in funds are disclosed in notes 21 to 22 inclusive to the financial statements.

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Balance sheets

As at 31 December 2024

Approved by the trustees on 7th August 2025 and signed on their behalf by

Jack Pringle Board Chair

RIBA — Annual Report and Financial Statements December 2024

Fixed assets: Intangible assets Tangible assets Heritage assets Investments in subsidiary undertakings Investments – other	The group The charity 2024 2023 2024 2023
	Note £’000 £’000 £’000 £’000
	10 1 1 – – 11 17,734 15,231 17,734 15,231 12 266,678 266,530 266,678 266,530 13 – – 1 1 15 122,606 124,124 122,606 124,124
	407,019 405,886 407,019 405,886
Current assets: Stocks Debtors Cash at bank and in hand	16 1,944 1,503 1 – 17 3,844 3,121 7,687 5,775 5,794 3,020 4,391 2,336
	11,582 7,644 12,080 8,111
Liabilities: Creditors: amounts falling due within one year	18 (6,823) (6,574) (6,020) (5,830)
Net current assets	4,759 1,070 6,060 2,281
Total assets less current liabilities Provisions	411,778 406,956 413,079 408,167 19 (1,999) (2,246) (1,999) (2,246)
Net assets excluding pension liability Defned beneft pension scheme asset	409,779 404,710 411,080 405,921 25 – – – –
Net assets	20 409,779 404,710 411,080 405,921
Funds: Restricted income funds Endowment funds Unrestricted income funds: Revaluation reserves Heritage assets reserves Fixed assets reserve Investment fund General reserves	21 2,482 2,524 2,482 2,524 21 4,701 4,166 4,701 4,166 22 6,316 6,380 6,316 6,380 266,678 265,740 266,678 265,740 11,418 8,851 11,418 8,851 112,168 111,496 112,168 111,496 6,015 5,553 7,317 6,764
Total unrestricted funds	402,596 398,020 403,897 399,231
Total charity funds	409,779 404,710 411,080 405,921

The parent charity’s deficit for the year was £1.75m (2023: surplus of £1.44m).

63

Consolidated statement of cash flows

For the year ended 31 December 2024

Cash fows from operating activities Net cash provided by operating activities Cash fows from investing activities: Dividends, interest and rents from investments Sale of fxed assets Purchase of fxed assets Acquisition of heritage assets Sale of investments Purchase of investments	2024 2023
	Note £’000 £’000 £’000 £’000
	23 (7,716) (7,063) 5,808 5,088 – 11,700 (3,959) (3,254) (42) (48) 82,307 38,545 (73,624) (45,619)
Net cash used in investing activities Change in cash and cash equivalents in the year Cash and cash equivalents at the beginning of the year	10,490 6,412 2,774 (651) 3,020 3,671
Cash and cash equivalents at the end of the year	5,794 3,020

Analysis of cash and cash equivalents and of net debt

Analysis of cash and cash equivalents and of net debt
Cash at bank and in hand	At 1 January 2024 Cash fows Other non–cash changes At 31 December 2024
	£’000 £’000 £’000 £’000 3,020 2,774 – 5,794
Total	3,020 2,774 – 5,794

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Notes to the financial statement

For the year ended 31 December 2024

Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland (FRS 102) issued on 16 July 2014 rather than the Accounting and Reporting by Charities: Statement of Recommended Practice effective from 1 April 2005 which has since been withdrawn. The accounts have been prepared in pound sterling currency and rounded to the nearest £’000.

1 ACCOUNTING POLICIES

a) Statutory information

Royal Institute of British Architects is a charity incorporated by Royal Charter registered with the Charity Commission in England & Wales. The registered office address is 66 Portland Place, London, W1B 1AD.

Assets and liabilities are initially recognised at historical cost or transaction value unless otherwise stated in the relevant accounting policy or note.

b) Basis of preparation

These financial statements consolidate the results of the charity and its wholly owned subsidiaries on a line-by-line basis. Transactions and balances between the charity and its subsidiaries have been eliminated from the consolidated financial statements. Balances between the group companies are disclosed in the notes of the charity’s balance sheet. A separate statement of financial activities, or income and expenditure account, for the charity itself is not presented as the summary of the result for the year is disclosed in the notes to the accounts.

The financial statements have been prepared in accordance with Accounting and Reporting by Charities: Statement of Recommended Practice applicable to charities preparing their accounts in accordance with the Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland (FRS 102) – (Charities SORP FRS 102), the Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland (FRS 102) and the Charities Act 2011.

The accounts (financial statements) have been prepared to give a ‘true and fair’ view and have departed from the Charities (Accounts and Reports) Regulations 2008 only to the extent required to provide a ‘true and fair view’. This departure has involved following Accounting and Reporting by Charities preparing their accounts in accordance with the Financial

c) Accounting estimates and judgements

In applying the financial reporting framework, the trustees have made a number of subjective judgements and estimates that are considered reasonable and appropriate under the circumstances. These estimates and judgements are continually

evaluated and are based on historical experience and other factors, including expectations of future events that are believed to be reasonable under the circumstances. The nature of the estimation means the actual outcomes could differ from those estimates.

Significant areas involving estimation or judgment include:

Heritage asset valuation

• Classification and treatment of permanent and expendable endowment funds

• Recognition of income from donations, grants, and legacies

• Valuation of investments

• Allocation of support and governance costs

• Assessment of going concern.

Any significant estimates and judgments affecting these financial statements are detailed within the relevant accounting policy below.

d) Public benefit entity

The charity meets the definition of a public benefit entity under FRS 102.

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Notes to the financial statement

f) Tangible fixed assets

e) Going concern

The financial statements have been prepared on the basis that RIBA has adequate resources to continue in operational existence for the foreseeable future (going concern basis), with assets and liabilities recognised as they will be realised and discharged in the normal course of business. In support of this assumption:

Depreciation is provided on a straight line basis at an annual rate calculated to write down each asset (which are capitalised if the cost exceeds £500, from Jan 2025 the threshold has been revised to £10K) to its residual value over the term of its expected useful life. The rates in use are as follows: Long-leasehold buildings 2% per annum

• The designated Investment Fund of £112.2m (2023: £111.5m) can be used for any immediate funding pressures;

Short-leasehold buildings over the remaining period of the lease Property improvements 3.3% – 20% per annum Motor vehicles 20 – 25% per annum Office equipment 10 – 25% per annum Computer equipment 20 – 33% per annum Website 10% per annum Website software 33% per annum

• The budget for 2025 shows RIBA continues to operate at a balanced budget on its business-as-usual activities

• The sale of 76 Portland Place (see note 27) provided an increase in free reserves in 2023.

The Board has also considered the potential uncertainties in the Group’s ten-year strategic plan and assessed its liquidity position and associated risks.

Based on this assessment, the Board is satisfied that there are no material uncertainties that may cast significant doubt on the Group’s ability to continue as a going concern.

Tangible fixed assets are valued at historic cost less depreciation.

The assets are tested for impairment whenever events or changes in circumstances indicate that the carrying amount may not be recoverable. An impairment loss is recognised for the amount by which the asset’s carrying amount exceeds its recoverable amount.

g) Intangible assets

The copyright is valued as previous years and not amortised.

h) Heritage assets

A heritage asset is defined as “a tangible asset with historical, artistic, scientific, technological, geophysical, or environmental qualities that is held and maintained principally for its contribution to knowledge and culture”. The Institute has recognised an estimated value for its collections of drawings, paintings, busts, books, periodicals, photographs, archives, and other heritage items in these financial statements. The valuation methodology was reviewed in 2012 by an independent firm of auditors and allows for a proportion of these assets to be revalued on a rolling basis. Following the transition to FRS 102 and the Charity SORP in January 2015, the previous valuations were frozen and adopted as ‘deemed cost’. Subsequent heritage asset valuations have been carried out by RIBA’s curatorial staff, leading experts in their respective fields, using a range of methods, including average cost estimates for certain asset categories.

RIBA — Annual Report and Financial Statements December 2024

66

Notes to the financial statement

Since January 2015, acquisitions to the RIBA Collections have been recognised either at acquisition cost or, in the case of donations, at an estimated valuation as at the date of receipt. Any gains or losses on subsequent revaluations are recognised in the Statement of Financial Activities. While the balance sheet includes a valuation of materials held in the RIBA Collections, this does not imply that the stated value is realisable or that these materials could be sold. Conditions attached to the original acquisition of items dating back to 1834, RIBA’s role as a cultural institution, and its obligations as an Accredited Museum under the Museums Association’s Code of Ethics (which strongly presumes against financially motivated disposals), mean that any sale of items from the collection would be contrary to RIBA’s policies and highly restricted.

Income from government and other grants, whether ‘capital’ grants or ‘revenue’ grants, is recognised when the charity has entitlement to the funds, any performance conditions attached to the grants have been met, it is probable that the income will be received and the amount can be measured reliably and is not deferred.

For legacies, entitlement is taken as the earlier of the date on which either: the charity is aware that probate has been granted, the estate has been finalised and notification has been made by the executor(s) to the charity that a distribution will be made, or when a distribution is received from the estate. Receipt of a legacy, in whole or in part, is only considered probable when the amount can be measured reliably and the charity has been notified of the executor’s intention to make a distribution. Where legacies have been notified to the charity, or the charity is aware of the granting of probate, and the criteria for income recognition have not been met, then the legacy is treated as a contingent asset and disclosed if material.

i) Taxation

RIBA is a registered charity and benefits from tax exemptions available to charities. The main subsidiaries of RIBA are subject to corporation tax on their taxable profits. Taxable profits are donated under gift aid to RIBA where possible.

Income received in advance of the provision of a specified service is deferred until the criteria for income recognition are met.

j) Income

Income is recognised when the charity has entitlement to the funds, any performance conditions attached to the income have been met, it is probable that the income will be received and that the amount can be measured reliably.

k) Donations of gifts, services and facilities

Donated professional services and donated facilities are recognised as income when the charity has control over the item or received the service, any conditions associated with the donation have been met, the receipt of economic benefit from the use by the charity of the item is probable and that economic benefit can be measured reliably. In accordance with the Charities SORP (FRS 102), volunteer time is not recognised so refer to the trustees’ annual report for more information about their contribution.

On receipt, donated gifts, professional services and donated facilities are recognised on the basis of the value of the gift to the charity, which is the amount the charity would have been willing to pay to obtain services or facilities of equivalent economic benefit on the open market; a corresponding amount is then recognised in expenditure in the period of receipt.

l) Interest receivable

Interest on funds held on deposit is included when receivable and the amount can be measured reliably by the charity; this is normally upon notification of the interest paid or payable by the bank.

RIBA — Annual Report and Financial Statements December 2024

67

Notes to the financial statement

m) Fund accounting

• Expenditure on charitable activities is allocated to one of the three grouping of strategic priorities, (a) Competency (Education, Research, Knowledge & Data), (b) Confidence (Advocacy, Policy & Influence, D&I, Culture), (c) Cashflow (Practice & Business Skills, Delivery); these three groupings include the costs of delivering services, exhibitions and other educational activities undertaken to further the purposes of the charity and their associated support costs

Restricted funds are to be used for specific purposes as laid down by the donor. Expenditure which meets these criteria is charged to the fund.

The income of permanent Endowment funds is to be used for specific purposes as laid down by the donor. This income forms a Restricted fund of the same name.

Unrestricted funds are donations and other incoming resources received or generated for the charitable purposes.

• Other expenditure represents those items not falling into any other heading.

Designated funds are unrestricted funds earmarked by the trustees for particular purposes.

• Irrecoverable VAT is charged as a cost against the activity for which the expenditure was incurred.

n) Expenditure and irrecoverable VAT

Termination payments shall be recognised as an expense in the period in which the obligation arises and accounted for in accordance with relevant accounting standards.

Expenditure is recognised once there is a legal or constructive obligation to make a payment to a third party, it is probable that settlement will be required and the amount of the obligation can be measured reliably. Expenditure is classified under the following activity headings:

All pension contributions made to the defined contribution plan are fully unrestricted and available for use in accordance with plan terms.

o) Allocation of support costs

• Costs of raising funds relate to the costs incurred by the charity in inducing third parties to make voluntary contributions and any activities with a fundraising purpose, as well as trading expenditure mainly from RIBA’s trading subsidiaries

Resources expended are allocated to the particular activity where the cost relates directly to that activity. However, the cost of overall direction and administration of each activity,

comprising the salary and overhead costs of the central function, is apportioned on the following basis, which is an estimate, based on staff time, of the amount attributable to each activity.

Where information about the aims, objectives and projects of the charity is provided to potential beneficiaries, the costs associated with this publicity are allocated to charitable expenditure.

Support and governance costs are re–allocated to each of the activities on the following basis, which is an estimate, based on staff time, of the amount attributable to each activity.

• Confidence (Advocacy, Policy & Influence, Diversity & Inclusion, Culture) 61%

• Competency (Education, Research, Knowledge & Data) 39%

• Cashflow (Practice & Business Skills, Delivery)

0.0%

Governance costs are the costs associated with the governance arrangements of the charity. These costs are associated with constitutional and statutory requirements and include any costs associated with the strategic management of the charity’s activities.

68 RIBA — Annual Report and Financial Statements December 2024

Notes to the financial statement

p) Operating leases

s) Investments in subsidiaries

Rental charges are charged on a straight line basis over the term of the lease.

Investments in subsidiaries are carried at cost less impairment in accordance with UK GAAP (FRS 102). Income received, net of broker fees, is recognised as revenue in the period in which it is earned.

q) Listed investments

Listed investments are measured at fair value based on quoted prices available on recognised stock exchanges. Any changes in fair value are reflected as gains or losses in the Statement of Financial Activities during the period in which they occur. Income from these investments is recognised when receivable, and transactions are recorded on the trade date.

t) Stocks

Stocks are stated at the lower of cost and estimated selling price less costs to complete and sell. In general, cost is determined on a first in first out basis and includes transport and handling costs. Provision is made where necessary for obsolete, slow moving and defective stocks.

r) Unlisted investments

u) Debtors

Unlisted Investments are financial assets that aren’t traded on public stock exchanges and are part of a charity’s investment strategy to grow its funds and support long-term goals. These investments are initially recorded at their transaction value. Subsequently, they are “marked to market” at each balance sheet date, reflecting their fair value using the closing quoted market price. Any changes in fair value are recognised in the statement of financial activities.

Trade and other debtors are recognised at the settlement amount due after any trade discount offered. Prepayments are valued at the amount prepaid net of any trade discounts due.

v) Cash at bank and in hand

Cash at bank and cash in hand includes cash and short term highly liquid investments with a short maturity of three months or less from the date of acquisition or opening of the deposit or similar account.

The charity does not engage in the acquisition of put options, derivatives, or other complex financial instruments.

w) Creditors and provisions

Creditors and provisions are recognised where the charity has a present obligation resulting from a past event that will probably result in the transfer of funds to a third party and the amount due to settle the obligation can be measured or estimated reliably. Creditors and provisions are normally recognised at their settlement amount after allowing for any trade discounts due.

x) Financial instruments

The charity only has financial assets and financial liabilities of a kind that qualify as basic financial instruments. Basic financial instruments are initially recognised at transaction value and subsequently measured at their settlement value with the exception of bank loans, which are subsequently measured at amortised cost using the effective interest method.

RIBA — Annual Report and Financial Statements December 2024

69

Notes to the financial statement

y) Pensions

As a result, an impairment charge has been recognised to reduce the carrying value of the pension asset to £Nil as at 31 December 2024. Consequently, no defined benefit pension asset has been included in the financial statements.”

RIBA operates a defined benefit pension scheme for eligible employees. The scheme is closed to new members. The Institute and its subsidiaries contribute to the scheme and the assets and liabilities are held in a separately administered fund. The charity has adopted in full the provisions of FRS 102 retirement benefits. In accordance with this standard, the movement in the pension scheme is reported in the statement of financial activities and the net surplus or deficit is recognised in the balance sheet.

The current service cost, interest cost and expected return on scheme assets are charged to staff costs within the statement of financial activities. These are allocated to the respective categories within resources expended, in line with the allocation of other staff costs. Actuarial gains and losses arising during the year are recognised immediately as other recognised gains and losses.

At the year end, the latest actuarial valuation reported a net pension surplus of £8.7m, However, under FRS 102, an asset may only be recognised to the extent that it is recoverable through either (a) refunds from the plan, or (b) reductions in future contributions.

The cost of the group’s contributions to defined contribution scheme for eligible employees is charged to the income and expenditure account in the year to which it relates.

z) Regions and branches

The trustees have assessed the recoverability of the surplus and (a) the likelihood of a refund from the plan has been deemed remote and impractical; (b) the charity has undertaken a valuation of the Minimum Funding Requirement (MFR) and concluded that the economic benefit from reduced future contributions is unlikely to be realised.

Regions’ accounts are included in the figures of RIBA, along with an estimate of assets held in RIBA branches.

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70

Notes to the financial statement

2 Analysis of the results of subsidiaries

RIBA has two main wholly owned subsidiaries, both of which are incorporated in the UK. The other main subsidiary RIBA Financial Services Ltd, company no 04604947, is 100% owned by RIBA 1834 Ltd, company no 04604934. A summary of the results of the main subsidiaries are shown below. Profits made by the subsidiaries are gift aided to RIBA where possible.

RIBA 1834 Hong Kong Limited and RIBA Business Information Consulting (Shanghai) Company Limited (a Wholly Foreign-Owned Enterprise in China) have been accounted for as branches in RIBA 1834 Ltd as the activities are financially immaterial.

				Retained
	Turnover	Expenditure	Proft/(loss)	earnings	Assets	Liabilities
2024	£’000	£’000	£’000	£’000	£’000	£’000
Company
RIBA 1834 Ltd	19,827	19,915	(88)	(1,298)	5,242	6,539
RIBA Financial Services Ltd	530	161	368	–	1,184	1,184
				Retained
	Turnover	Expenditure	Proft/(loss)	earnings	Assets	Liabilities
2023	£’000	£’000	£’000	£’000	£’000	£’000
Company
RIBA 1834 Ltd	18,096	18,025	71	(1,210)	3,793	5,003
RIBA Financial Services Ltd	519	199	320	–	781	781

Included above are intra-group sales of £12,624k (2023: £11,811k) included as turnover and £12,785k (2023: £12,511k) included as costs.

The parent charity’s gross income and the results for the year are disclosed in note 14.

3 Other similar named organisations

RIBA serves as the custodian trustee to the British Architectural Library Trust (BALT), which was separately

registered as a dormant charity under charity number 267936 and has since been removed from the Charity Commission register. BALT transferred all its assets to RIBA in 2010, including an extensive collection of items, comprising books, journals, photographs, drawings and archives. These assets form a significant part of RIBA’s collections, continuing to support architectural research, education and heritage preservation.

71 RIBA — Annual Report and Financial Statements December 2024

Notes to the financial statement

4a Analysis of expenditure (current year)

Charitable activities	Direct staff costs Direct costs Support costs 2024 Total
	£’000 £’000 £’000 £’000
Confdence Competency Cashfow Cost of raising funds Pension fnance costs	3,783 1,941 9,823 15,546 2,155 2,231 5,640 10,027 260 71 631 962
	6,198 4,243 16,094 26,535 1,706 4,470 – 6,176 – – 223 223
Total expenditure 2024	7,904 8,713 16,317 32,934

Support costs of £16,317k includes following cost.

	2024
	Total
	£’000
Staff & related costs	8,227
Governance	1,048
Staff travel	254
Rent & Rates	700
Printing & Postage	110
Utilities	443
Repairs & Maintenance	272
Insurance	355
Training	844
Bank charges	331
ICT cost	542
Professional fee	1,516
Pension fnance costs	223
Depreciation	1,452
Total support cost	16,317

Governance costs consist of, £540K governance salary, £360K legal fees, £73K auditors’ fees, and £75K travel and meeting expenses.

RIBA — Annual Report and Financial Statements December 2024

72

Notes to the financial statement

4b Analysis of expenditure (prior year)

Charitable activities	Direct staff costs Direct costs Support costs 2023 Total
	£’000 £’000 £’000 £’000
Confdence Competency Cashfow Cost of raising funds Pension fnance costs	3,196 2,142 7,168 12,506 2,103 1,692 4,846 8,641 244 77 563 884
	5,543 3,911 12,577 22,031 1,685 4,365 – 6,050 – – 379 379
Total expenditure 2023	7,228 8,276 12,956 28,460

Support costs of £12,956k includes following cost.

	2023
	Total
	£’000
Staff & related costs	5,506
Governance	895
Staff travel	149
Rent & rates	800
Printing & postage	150
Utilities	343
Repairs & maintenance	135
Insurance	435
Training	742
Bank charges	349
ICT cost	142
Professional fees	1,415
Pension fnance costs	379
Depreciation	1,516
Total support cost	12,956

Governance costs consist of, £362K governance salary, £400K legal fees, £61K auditors’ fees, and £72K travel and meeting expenses.

RIBA — Annual Report and Financial Statements December 2024

73

Notes to the financial statement

5 Net (expenditure)/income for the year

6 Analysis of staff costs, trustee remuneration and expenses, and the cost of key management personnel Staff costs were as follows:

This is stated after charging/(crediting):

	2024 2023
	£’000 £’000
Depreciation Loss on disposal of fxed assets Operating lease rentals: Property Auditors’ remuneration (excluding VAT): Audit Under/(over) provision in previous years Other services	1,454 1,657 – 567 424 434 70 55 (1) 10 4 7

	2024 2023
	£’000 £’000
Salaries and wages Redundancy and termination costs Social security costs Employer’s contribution to defned contribution pension schemes	12,186 10,993 63 56 1,284 1,148 1,052 899
	14,585 13,096

During the year £63K of termination payments were made of which £0K represented contractual payments and £63K represented non-contractual ex-gratia payments, which were considered by trustees to be in the best interests of the charity. As at the year end £19,250 of redundancy costs were unpaid (2023: £4,994).

All staff members are employed by RIBA 1834 Ltd and costs are charged to the relevant subsidiary company. These are shown under either charitable expenditure or costs of generating funds. The average number of employees (head count based on number of staff employed) during the year was as follows:

RIBA group	2024 2023 No. No. 35 35 5 4 46 49 73 69 9 6
Royal Institute of British Architects Raising funds (RIBA 1834 Limited & RIBA Financial Services Limited) Cashfow Competence Confdence Governance
Support costs	88 87 256 250
Total

74 RIBA — Annual Report and Financial Statements December 2024

Notes to the financial statement

The number of employees of RIBA and its subsidiaries whose emoluments (excluding employers national insurance) fell in the following bands were as follows:

7 Trustee remuneration and expenses

Trustees of RIBA are reimbursed reasonable expenses incurred when on RIBA business. Seven trustees claimed such expenses (2023: 7) and the total amount reimbursed was £48,592 (2023: £30,230).

	2024 2023
	No. No.
£60,000 – £69,999 £70,000 – £79,999 £80,000 – £89,999 £90,000 – £99,999 £100,000 – £109,999 £110,000 – £119,999 £120,000 – £129,999 £130,000 – £139,999 £190,000 – £199,999 £210,000 – £219,999	19 12 10 7 3 1 2 2 2 2 1 2 5 4 1 – – 1 1 –

The Charity Commission granted a section 105 order under the Charities Act 2011 allowing the Chair of the trustee Board, Jack Pringle, to receive annual remuneration in the sum of £35,000 gross to compensate for time spent on RIBA business (2023: £35,000). In addition, the President was paid an honorarium of £60,000 gross (2023: £20,000). No other payments were made to RIBA trustees (2023: £nil).

Trustees have been asked to sign declarations to confirm any payments that need to be disclosed. No other such payments have been declared.

8 Related party transactions

There are no donations from related parties which are outside the normal course of business and no restricted donations from related parties.

The total employee benefits including employers national insurance and pension contributions of the key management personnel (Trustees and Group Executive Team) were £1,467,045 (2023: £1,036,982).

Other than as noted shown in note 7, there were no other related party transactions (2023: £nil).

9 Taxation

The charity is exempt from corporation tax as all its income is charitable and is applied for charitable purposes. The charity’s trading subsidiaries gift aid available profits to the parent charity. Their charge to corporation tax in the year was £0 (2023: £nil).

10 Intangible assets

	Copyright Total
	£’000 £’000
RIBA Group Cost: As at 1 January 2024 Disposal in year	1 1 – –
As at 31 December 2024	1 1
Amortisation: As at 1 January 2024 Eliminated on disposal	– – – –
As at 31 December 2024	– –
Net book value: As at 31 December 2024	1 1
As at 31 December 2023	1 1

75 RIBA — Annual Report and Financial Statements December 2024

Notes to the financial statement

11 Tangible fixed assets

The heading Properties includes 66 Portland Place, which was last valued on 22 October 1987 when the property was valued at £8.5m, an upwards revaluation of £7.9m. In the opinion of the trustees, the value of the property is in excess of this amount – trustees have done a discounted cashflow on the peppercorn annual rental value of the land rental, giving an indicative value in excess of £50m. The valuation of 66 Portland Place is therefore not at the market value, but refers to the historic cost. Additional capital works have been undertaken on 66 Portland Place since its last valuation and they are recognised at their carrying value in the accounts; in the opinion of the trustees no impairment is required to the value of these assets. The lease on the 66/68 Portland Place property expires on 6 July 2930.

The lease on the facilities at the Victoria and Albert Museum, which is rent free, will end by mutual consent in 2027.

	Properties Ofce and computer equipment Motor vehicles Total
	£’000 £’000 £’000 £’000
Cost: At the start of the year Additions inyear	21,411 13,082 77 34,571 3,002 957 – 3,959
At the end of the year	24,413 14,039 77 38,530
Depreciation: At the start of the year Charge for theyear	11,007 8,261 73 19,341 278 1,173 3 1,454
At the end of the year	11,285 9,434 76 20,795
Net book value: At the end of the year	13,128 4,605 1 17,734
At the start of the year	10,405 4,821 4 15,230

RIBA — Annual Report and Financial Statements December 2024

76

Notes to the financial statement

12 Heritage assets

As at 31 December 2011, RIBA estimated a value in respect of its various collections of drawings, paintings, busts, books, periodicals, photographs, archives and other assets following the introduction of the new reporting standard FRS 30. As custodian of one of the finest architectural collections in the world, it was agreed with the auditors that RIBA’s curatorial staff had sufficient detailed knowledge of the collections for it to be valued and accordingly no external valuers were engaged. During the year, the Institute acquired and were also donated further heritage assets. All donations have been included in additions at a fair valuation. The values of all assets are shown below against each category. While the balance sheet includes the value of the materials in RIBA Collections, this does not mean that either this value could be realised or that the material in the collections could in fact be sold. Conditions relating to the original acquisition of material by RIBA going back to 1834, RIBA’s standing as a cultural organisation, and its need as an Accredited museum to follow the Museums Association’s Code of Ethics relating to disposal (which presumes against any financially motivated disposal) mean that any sale of items from the collection would be contrary to RIBA’s policies and highly restricted.

	Drawings and collections Books and periodicals Photographs Other Total 2024 £’000 £’000 £’000 £’000 £’000 203,203 17,978 40,027 5,322 266,530 – 43 – – 43 52 2 49 2 105 203,255 18,023 40,076 5,324 266,678 Total 2024 Total 2023 Total 2022 Total 2021 Total 2020 £’000 £’000 £’000 £’000 £’000 266,530 266,453 266,327 265,267 265,116 43 48 92 75 41 105 29 34 985 110 – – – – –
Heritage assets at valuation As at 1 January Additions – purchases Additions – donations
As at 31 December
Five-year summary As at 1 January Additions – purchases Additions – donations Revaluation
	266,678 266,530 266,453 266,327 265,267
As at 31 December

RIBA — Annual Report and Financial Statements December 2024

77

Notes to the financial statement

Archives

Drawings

RIBA has over one million drawings. The most valuable of these drawings have been valued individually by a staff member, who is deemed to be suitably qualified to be able to do so. All other drawings have been stratified into value ranges and an average value.

The archives consist of a number of internal documents, together with letters and other papers relating to individual architects. The internal documents are not considered to have any significant value attached to them and have not been valued. The letters and other papers are organised into about 800 separate collections and have been valued.

Books and periodicals

Books held for permanent retention, which form the majority of books held, are regarded as heritage assets and are valued as such. The books available for loan to members are deemed to be operational assets. The periodicals collection includes runs of major journals worldwide. In total, RIBA owns about 110,000 books and has over 23,000 bound journal volumes.

13 Investments in subsidiary companies

	2024 2023
	£’000 £’000
RIBA charity – Investments in group companies: Ordinary shares RIBA 1834 Limited RIBA Financial Services Limited	1 1 – –
	1 1

Photographs

RIBA holds about 1.5 million photographs in a variety of formats and types of medium. An increasing number of these can be viewed on the website www.architecture.com and images can be purchased, which in turn provides funding for more to be made available.

RIBA owned two main trading subsidiary companies (which are 100% subsidiaries (see note 2) and registered in England and Wales) as at December 2024.

	Company
Name	Number	Principal activities
RIBA 1834 Ltd	4604934	Venues, RIBA Competitions and
		RIBA Publishing.
RIBA Financial	4604947	Provision of middleware for
Services Ltd		customers to access pension solutions
		and other services.

RIBA also owned 100% of RIBA Journals Ltd & RIBA Enterprises Ltd which were both dissolved in YE 2024. RIBA has a related company, RIBA Insurance Agency Ltd, which is also dormant. There is no change from 2023. After 2024 year end, the directors filed notice to strike off RIBA Financial Services Limited in May 2025 and continue all trading activities through RIBA 1834 Limited. The strike off date was 19th August 2025 and the dissolution date was 26th August 2025.

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78

Notes to the financial statement

14 Investments

	Listed Unlisted The group & The charity
	2024 2024 2024 2023
	£’000 £’000 £’000 £’000
Fair value at the start of the year Additions at cost Disposal proceeds Unrealised gain / (loss)	36,834 87,290 124,124 113,888 71,756 1,868 73,624 45,619 (29,985) (52,322) (82,307) (38,545) 4,079 3,086 7,165 3,162
Fair value at the end of the year	82,684 39,922 122,606 124,124

The investments include those held as part of the Investment Fund, restricted fund investments, and any other investments RIBA may hold as part of its day-to-day operations.

£5.2m included in cash above is short term investments held in a high-interest short-term deposit account.

Investments comprise:

	The group & The charity
	2024 2023
	£’000 £’000
Unitised funds Cash	117,316 117,916 5,290 6,208
	122,606 124,124

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79

Notes to the financial statement

15 Stocks

	The group The charity
	2024 2023 2024 2023
	£’000 £’000 £’000 £’000
Goods for resale	1,944 1,503 1 –
16 Debtors	The group The charity
	2024 2023 2024 2023
	£’000 £’000 £’000 £’000
Trade debtors Prepayments and accrued income Other debtors Due from subsidiary undertakings	1,123 988 586 432 2,528 2,074 1,694 1,545 193 59 30 31 – – 5,377 3,767
	3,844 3,121 7,687 5,775

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80

Notes to the financial statement

17 Creditors: amounts falling due within one year

	The group The charity
	2024 2023 2024 2023
	£’000 £’000 £’000 £’000
Trade creditors Taxation and social security Other creditors Accruals and deferred income Due to subsidiary undertakings	1,703 1,909 1,703 1,909 684 790 363 487 560 309 238 119 3,875 3,566 3,307 2,818 – – 409 497
	6,823 6,574 6,020 5,830

18 Deferred income is primarily comprised of advance membership fees:

	The group The charity
	2024 2023 2024 2023
	£’000 £’000 £’000 £’000
Balance at the beginning of the year Amount released to income in the year Amount deferred in the year	993 3,090 914 2,911 (1,664) (3,046) (1,017) (2,887) 2,229 949 1,591 890
Balance at the end of the year	1,558 993 1,488 914

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81

Notes to the financial statement

19 Provisions

	The group & The charity
	At the start of the year 01.01.2024 Charge during the year Release during the year At the end of the year 31.12.2024
	£’000 £’000 £’000 £’000
Mann Island lease	1,664 – (247) 1,417
Other provision	582 – – 582
	2,246 – (247) 1,999

Provisions include £1.4m allocated for an onerous lease at Mann Island, which is set to expire in November 2031. Other provisions include dilapidation and London office work provisions.

The net movement of £8.6m in the defined benefit pension scheme provision, as detailed in Note 25, has been fully impaired, resulting in a carrying value of £Nil.

20a Analysis of group net assets between funds (current year)

	Unrestricted funds Restricted funds Endowment funds Total funds
	£’000 £’000 £’000 £’000
Intangible fxed assets Tangible fxed assets Heritage assets Investments Net current assets Long-term liabilities Defned beneft pension liability	1 – – 1 17,604 130 – 17,734 266,678 – – 266,678 117,406 499 4,701 122,606 2,906 1,853 – 4,759 (1,999) – – (1,999) – – – –
Net assets at the end of the year	402,596 2,482 4,166 409,779

82 RIBA — Annual Report and Financial Statements December 2024

Notes to the financial statement

20b Analysis of group net assets between funds (prior year)

	Unrestricted funds Restricted funds Endowment funds Total funds
	£’000 £’000 £’000 £’000
Intangible fxed assets Tangible fxed assets Heritage assets Investments Net current assets Long-term liabilities Defned beneft pension liability	1 – – 1 15,071 160 – 15,231 266,530 – – 266,530 119,450 508 4,166 124,124 (786) 1,856 – 1,070 (2,246) – – (2,246) – – – –
Net assets at the end of the year	398,020 2,524 4,166 404,710

21a Movements in funds – restricted and endowed funds (current year)

	At the start of the year 01.01.2024 Income Expenditure Gains / (losses) At the end of the year 31.12.2024
	£’000 £’000 £’000 £’000 £’000
Restricted funds (note 21b) Endowment funds (note 21c)	2,524 557 (599) - 2,482 4,166 – - 535 4,701
Total restricted and endowed funds	6,690 557 (599) 535 7,183

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83

Notes to the financial statement

21b Movements in funds – restricted funds (current year)

	At the start of the year 01.01.2024 Income Expenditure Gains / (losses) At the end of the year 31.12.2024
	£’000 £’000 £’000 £’000 £’000
RIBA group and RIBA charity – restricted funds Goldfnger Trust RIBA Education Fund Banister Fletcher History of Architecture Hans & C Eisner Clore Learning Studio John & David Hubert legacy Notley Student Support Fund Notley Student Travel Fund RIBA Collections Research Annie Spink Memorial WJ Parker Trust Research Trust Nadine Beddington Giles Worsley LKE Ozolins Bequest RIBA Award Trust Other	210 6 (11) – 205 234 27 (35) – 227 32 21 – – 52 – 175 – – 175 160 – (30) – 130 72 2 (8) – 66 150 – – – 150 150 – – – 150 87 – (2) – 86 121 7 (11) – 118 67 17 (18) – 66 150 41 (66) – 124 46 8 (1) – 53 190 11 (8) – 192 112 10 (63) – 59 111 20 (1) – 129 632 212 (345) – 500
Total restricted funds	2,524 557 (599) – 2,482

These funds are held to serve a number of purposes principally educational and funding the Library/Collections. These restricted funds can only be used for the express purpose for which they have been given.

The Goldfinger Trust funds a bursary scheme aimed at helping individuals from under-represented backgrounds enter the architecture profession.

The RIBA Education Fund, Hans & C Eisner and Notley Student Support Fund provide grants and bursaries to architecture students.

The Notley Student Travel Fund supports an annual travel bursary for architectural study.

The Giles Worsley Fund provides an annual travel bursary to enable study at the British School in Rome.

84 RIBA — Annual Report and Financial Statements December 2024

Notes to the financial statement

21c Movement in funds – endowment funds (current year)

Endowment funds are invested to generate income, which is then held in a series of separate restricted funds (see note above).

	At the start of the year 01.01.2024 Income Expenditure Unrealised gains/(losses) At the end of the year 31.12.2024
	£’000 £’000 £’000 £’000 £’000
RIBA group and RIBA charity – Permanent endowment funds Annie Spink Memorial Scholarship 105 – – 14 119 W J Parker Trust 480 – – 62 541 Lord Norman Foster Travelling Scholarship 286 – – 37 322 Research Trust Funds 1,171 – – 150 1,321 Sir Banister Fletcher Library Bequest 137 – – 18 155 Nadine Beddington Trust 210 – – 27 237 Giles Worsley Fund 149 – – 19 168 BALT 94 – – 12 106 LKE Ozolins Bequest 710 – – 91 801 C Jencks Exchange Fund 148 – – 19 167 RIBA Award Trust 522 – – 67 589 Other 154 – – 20 174
Total endowment funds 4,166 – – 535 4,701

These permanent endowment funds are invested to generate income for long-term support, educational goals and the development of the Library and Collections. The Charity is undergoing a review of the funds, indicating that there are potential changes in classification and valuation of funds in the future accounts following the complete review.

W J Parker Trust provides financial support to student of architecture facing financial hardship.

Lord Norman Foster Travelling Scholarship funds an annual scholarship which supports international travel on a research topic related to the sustainable future of cities.

Research Trust Funds support independent architectural research by practitioners and academics.

Nadine Beddington Trust provides funding for the permanent benefit of the Library.

LKE Ozolins Bequest funds RIBA’s L.K.E Ozolins Lecture and L.K.E Ozolins Fellowship.

RIBA Award Trust encourages the art of architecture by recognising excellence in the design of buildings through an awards scheme.

85 RIBA — Annual Report and Financial Statements December 2024

Notes to the financial statement

21d Movements in funds – restricted and endowed funds (prior year)

	At the start of the year 01.01.2024 Income Expenditure	Gains / (losses) At the end of the year 31.12.2024
	£’000 £’000 £’000	£’000 £’000
Restricted funds (note 21e) Endowment funds (note 21f)	2,414 431 (321) 3,990 – –	– 2,524 176 4,166
Total restricted and endowed funds	6,404 431 (321)	176 6,690

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Notes to the financial statement

21e Movements in funds – restricted funds (prior year)

	At the start of the year 01.01.2024 Income and gains Expenditure and losses Transfers At the end of the year 31.12.2024
	£’000 £’000 £’000 £’000 £’000
RIBA group and RIBA charity – restricted funds Goldfnger Trust RIBA Education Fund Banister Fletcher History of Architecture Clore Learning Studio John & David Hubert legacy Notley Student Support Fund Notley Student Travel Fund RIBA Collections Research Annie Spink Memorial WJ Parker Trust Research Trust Nadine Beddington Giles Worsley LKE Ozolins Bequest RIBA Award Trust Other	205 6 (1) – 210 126 147 (39) – 234 42 14 – (24) 32 190 – (30) – 160 88 3 (19) – 72 150 – – – 150 150 – – – 150 90 – (3) – 87 125 7 (10) – 121 52 17 (3) – 67 126 41 (17) – 150 38 8 – – 46 187 11 (8) – 190 103 10 (1) – 112 92 20 (2) – 111 650 147 (188) 24 632
Total restricted funds	2,414 431 (321) – 2,524

Transfers represent amounts transferred from one fund to another within the same restrictions, to enable a total project spend to be reported under one fund.

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Notes to the financial statement

21f Movement in funds – endowment funds (prior year)

Endowment funds are invested to generate income, which is then held in a series of separate restricted funds (see note above).

	At the start of the year 01.01.2024 Income Expenditure Unrealised gain on investments At the end of the year 31.12.2024
	£’000 £’000 £’000 £’000 £’000
RIBA group and RIBA charity – endowment funds Annie Spink Memorial Scholarship 101 – – 5 106 W J Parker Trust 459 – – 21 480 Lord Norman Foster Travelling Scholarship 273 – – 12 285 Research Trust Funds 1,122 – – 49 1,171 Sir Banister Fletcher Library Bequest 131 – – 6 137 Nadine Beddington Trust 201 – – 9 210 Giles Worsley Fund 143 – – 6 149 BALT 90 – – 4 94 LKE Ozolins Bequest 680 – – 30 710 C Jencks Exchange Fund 142 – – 6 148 RIBA Award Trust 500 – – 22 522 Other 148 – – 6 154
Total endowment funds 3,990 – – 176 4,166

88 RIBA — Annual Report and Financial Statements December 2024

Notes to the financial statement

22a Unrestricted funds – current year

	At the start of the year 01.01.2024 Income Expenditure Transfers Gains / (losses) At the end of the year 31.12.2024
	£’000 £’000 £’000 £000 £000 £’000
RIBA Group General reserves Designated reserves Revaluation reserve Heritage assets reserves Fixed assets reserve Investment fund	5,553 30,063 (36,071) 6,471 – 6,016 6,380 – – (64) – 6,316 265,740 105 – 833 – 266,678 8,851 – 3,959 (1,391) – 11,418 111,496 – – (5,848) 6,520 112,168
	398,020 30,168 (32,112) – 6,520 402,596
RIBA charity General reserves Designated reserves Revaluation reserve Heritage assets reserves Fixed assets reserve Investment fund	6,764 30,620 (37,073) 7,006 – 7,317 6,380 – – (64) – 6,316 265,740 105 – 833 – 266,678 8,851 – 3,959 (1,391) – 11,418 111,496 – – (6,383) 7,055 112,168
	399,231 30,725 (33,114) – 7,055 403,897

Revaluation reserve was created for a revaluation of 66 Portland Place.

Heritage assets reserves show the value of heritage assets at RIBA.

Fixed assets reserve represents the net book value of fixed assets after taking into account the revaluation reserve.

Investment fund reserve is the investment held partly to fund the House of Architecture programme, as well as long-term to generate returns to support the future charitable activities and other RIBA priorities.

General reserves are the free reserves to underwrite the day-to-day activities.

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Notes to the financial statement

22b Unrestricted funds – prior year

	At the start of the year 01.01.2023 Income Expenditure Transfers Gains / (losses) At the end of the year 31.12.2023 £’000 £’000 £’000 £000 £000 £’000 6,444 – – (64) 6,380 265,711 – 29 – 265,740 12,000 – 8,851 (12,000) 8,851 110,546 – – 950 111,496 1,771 – (7,332) 11,114 5,553 396,472 – 1,548 – – 398,020 6,444 – – (64) 6,380 265,711 – 29 – 265,740 12,000 – 8,851 (12,000) 8,851
RIBA Group Revaluation reserve Heritage assets reserves Fixed assets reserve Investment fund General reserves
RIBA charity Revaluation reserve Heritage assets reserves Fixed assets reserve
Investment for growth fund General reserves	110,546 – – 950 111,496 3,053 – (7,403) 11,114 6,764 397,754 – 1,477 – – 399,231 December 2024
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Notes to the financial statement

23 Reconciliation of net (expenditure)/income to net cash flow from operating activities

	2024 2023
	£’000 £’000
Net income/(expenditure) for the reporting period (as per the statement of fnancial activities) Depreciation charges (Gains)/losses on investments Heritage assets donated Dividends, interest and rent from investments Loss on disposal of fxed assets (Increase)/decrease in stocks (Increase) in debtors (Decrease) in creditors Pension reserve fundingmovements	4,846 1,455 1,454 1,657 (7,165) (3,162) (105) (29) (5,808) (5,088) – 567 (441) (28) (723) (317) 2 (2,497) 223 379
Net cash provided by operating activities	(7,716) (7,063)

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Notes to the financial statement

24 Operating lease commitments

The group’s total future minimum lease payments under non-cancellable operating leases are as follows for each of the following periods:

Property

	Property
	2024 2023
	£’000 £’000
Less than one year Between two and fve years Over fve years	427 421 1,625 1,593 3,331 3,731
	5,383 5,745

The charity’s total future minimum lease payments under non-cancellable operating leases are as follows for each of the following periods:

	Property
	2024 2023
	£’000 £’000
Less than one year Between two and fve years Over fve years	427 421 1,625 1,593 3,331 3,731
	5,383 5,745

As detailed in Note 19, the above schedule includes the provision relating to the onerous lease agreement for the Mann Island property. At year end 2024 there were no material capital commitments. With the progression of the House of Architecture programme, RIBA is forecast to spend £7.4m on capital in 2025.

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Notes to the financial statement

25 Pension schemes

RIBA participates in two pension schemes, as detailed in Note 1. These include a stakeholder pension scheme and a defined benefit pension scheme.

Stakeholder pension scheme

RIBA operates one stakeholder pension scheme for the benefit of all staff who are not members of the defined benefit scheme. This is a money purchase scheme where the employee contributes at least 3–6% of their salary and the employer 5–12% depending on age. The amount of this contribution in the year was £1,051,000 (2023: £899,000).

Defined benefit scheme

The group operates a defined benefit scheme in the UK. This scheme was closed to new employees in 1994 and now has no active members. A full actuarial valuation was carried out at 31 December 2022 by a qualified actuary. The next full triennial valuation will be prepared as at 31 December 2025.

	Year ended 31 December 2024 Year ended 01 January 2024
	£’000 £’000
Change in defned beneft obligation Defned beneft obligation at beginning of year (Gain)/loss on curtailments/changes/introductions Interest expense Cash fow: Beneft payments from plan assets Remeasurements: Effect of changes in assumptions Effect of experience adjustments	36,090 37,664 – – 1,662 1,818 (2,915) (2,601) (2,436) (408) 7 (383)
Beneft obligation at end of year	32,408 36,090

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Notes to the financial statement

25 Pension scheme (continued)

25 Pension scheme (continued)
	Year ended 31 December 2024 Year ended 01 January 2024
	£’000 £’000
Change in fair value of plan assets Fair value of plan assets at beginning of year Interest income Cash fows: Beneft payments from plan assets Administrative expenses paid from plan assets Remeasurement: Return on plan assets (excluding interest income)	45,817 47,178 2,113 2,273 (2,915) (2,601) (674) (834) (3,270) (199)
Fair value of plan assets at end of year	41,071 45,817

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Notes to the financial statement

25 Pension scheme (continued)

25 Pension scheme (continued)
	Year ended 31 December 2024 Year ended 01 January 2024
	£’000 £’000
Amounts recognised in the balance sheet Defned beneft obligation Fair value of plan assets Funded status Effect of asset ceiling impairment	32,408 36,090 41,071 45,817
	(8,663) (9,727)
	(8,663) (9,727)
Net defned beneft liability (asset)	– –

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Notes to the financial statement

25 Pension scheme (continued)

25 Pension scheme (continued)
	Year ended 31 December 2024 Year ended 01 January 2024
	£’000 £’000
Cost relating to defned beneft plans Net interest cost: Interest expense on DBO Interest (income) on plan assets Total net interest cost Administrative expenses and/or taxes (not reserved within DBO)	1,662 1,818 (2,113) (2,273)
	(451) (455)
	674 834
Cost relating to defned beneft plans recognised in SOFA	223 379
Remeasurements (recognised in other comprehensive income)
Effect of changes in assumptions	(2,436) (408)
Effect of experience adjustments	7 (383)
(Return) on plan assets (excluding interest income)	3,270 199
Total remeasurements included in other comprehensive income	841 (592)
Total cost related to defned beneft plans recognised in SOFA	1,064 (213)

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Notes to the financial statement

25 Pension scheme (continued)

25 Pension scheme (continued)
	Year ended 31 December 2024 Year ended 01 January 2024
	£’000 £’000
Net defned beneft liability (asset) reconciliation Net defned beneft liability (asset) Cost relating to defned beneft plans included in SOFA Total remeasurements included in other comprehensive income	(9,727) (9,514) 223 379 841 (592)
Net defned beneft liability (asset) as of end of year	(8,663) (9,727)
	Year ended 31 December 2024 Year ended 01 January 2024
	£’000 £’000
Defned beneft obligation Defned beneft obligation by participant status Vested deferreds Retirees	4,368 4,777 28,040 31,313
Total	32,408 36,090

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Notes to the financial statement

25 Pension scheme (continued)

25 Pension scheme (continued)
	Year ended 31 December 2024 Year ended 01 January 2024
	£’000 £’000
Plan assets Fair value of plan assets: Debt instruments Other Cash and cash equivalents	40,524 44,432 356 473 191 912
Total	41,071 45,817
Actual return on plan assets	(1,157) 2,074

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Notes to the financial statement

25 Pension scheme (continued)

25 Pension scheme (continued)
	Year ended 31 December 2024 Year ended 01 January 2024
	£’000 £’000
Signifcant actuarial assumptions Weighted-average assumptions to determine beneft obligations: Discount rate Price infation rate (RPI) Pensions-in-payment increase rate Pre 1.1.1989 – simple Post 1.1.1989 – compound Assumed life expectations on retirement at age 65 Male retiring today (member age 65) Male retiring in 20 years (member age 45 today) Female retiring today (member age 65) Female retiring in 20 years (member age 45 today) Weighted-average assumptions to determine cost relating to defned beneft plan: Discount rate Rate of pension increase – Pre 1 January 1989 (simple) Rate of pension increase – Post 1 January 1989 (compound) Price infation rate (RPI)	5.50% 4.80% 3.20% 3.10% 7.00% 7.00% 5.00% 5.00% 22.2 22.2 23.6 23.6 24.3 24.2 25.9 25.8 4.8% 5.00% 7.00% 7.00% 5.00% 5.00% 3.10% 3.20%

99 RIBA — Annual Report and Financial Statements December 2024

Notes to the financial statement

25 Pension scheme (continued)

25 Pension scheme (continued)
	Year ended 31 December 2024 Year ended 01 January 2024
	£’000 £’000
Sensitivity analysis Present value of defned beneft obligation Discount rate – 25 basis points Discount rate + 25 basis points Price infation rate – 25 basis points Price infation rate + 25 basis points Post–retirement mortality assumption – 1 year age rating Weighted average duration of defned beneft obligation (in years) Discount rate – 25 basis points Discount rate + 25 basis points	33,198 37,042 31,650 35,180 32,387 36,065 32,429 36,115 34,142 38,094 9.6 10.4 9.5 10.2
Expected cash fows for following year Expected total beneft payments Year 1 Year 2 Year 3 Year 4 Year 5 Next 5 years	3,108 2,769 3,313 2,948 3,532 3,140 3,766 3,344 4,016 3,562 4,282 21,620

26 Fixed asset disposal

In June 2023 the lease for 76 Portland Place was sold to Howard de Walden for a consideration of £11.7m.

27 Legal status of the charity

The charity is a company incorporated under Royal Charter and has no share capital.

100 RIBA — Annual Report and Financial Statements December 2024

Legal and administrative details

Name of charity: Royal Institute of British Architects Charity number: 210566

Karen Anderson (RIBA Scotland North 2022-2024) (RIAS President 2024-2026)

Registered office and operational address: 66 Portland Place, London, W1B 1AD

Jo Bacon (Council) 2021-2024

Julian Baker (North West) 2021-2024

Council Members

Duncan Baker-Brown (South East) 2023-2026

Page 41 provides more information on RIBA’s governance. The following is a list of Council members and their term of office. The term years run from 1 September to 31 August each year.

Tom Bell (Wessex) 2023-2026

Muyiwa Oki (President) from 1 Sept 2022

Dan Benham (RSAW President) 2023-2025 Mark Benzie (South) 2022-2025 Philippa Birch-Wood (West Midlands) 2023-2026 Christoper Birmble (RSAW) 2024-2027 Graham Boyce (Yorkshire) 2021-2024

Funmbi Adeagbo (London) 2023-2026

Maryam Al-Irhayim (Student) 2022-2025

Simon Allford

(President/Immediate Past President) 2023-2024

Philip Allsopp (The Americas) 2023-2026 Zafir Ameen (Student) 2022-2025

Dan Brown (Yorkshire) 2024-2027

Niralee Casson (London) 2023-2026 Nenpin Dimka (Associate) 2023-2026 Jennifer Dixon (Council) 2023-2026 Graeme Dodd (North East) 2021-2024 Calum Duncan (Scotland South) 2023-2026 Katie Fisher (London) 2024-2027 Tom Foggin (VP Membership) 2023-2025 Jon Greenfield (East) 2022-2025 Richard Hanley Timmins (South East) 2023-2026 Mark Harris (Middle East and Africa) 2023-2026 Mina Hasman (Council) 2022-2025

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Legal and administrative details

Paul Iddon (North West) 2024-2027 Greta Jonsson (London) 2023-2026 Waldemar Koehler (Europe ex UK) 2023-2026 Félicie Krikler (London) 2023-2026 John Lavery (RSUA President) 2024-2026 Chithra Marsh (North West) 2021-2024 Paul MacMahon (Associate) 2023-2026 Paul McAlister (RSUA President) 2022-2024 Joan McCoy (RSUA) 2022-2025 Alfred Munkenbeck (Council) 2022-2025 Timothy Onyenobi (Council) 2023-2026	Femi Oresanya (London) 2023-26
	Jack Pringle (London) 2023-2026
	Roger Shrimplin (East) 2022-2025
	Sumita Singha (Council) 2021-2024
	Chris Stewart (RIAS President) 2022-2024
	Ryan Stuckey (RSAW) 2021-2024
	Rufna Thilakaratne (Asia & Australasia) 2023-2026
	Anna Webster (East Midlands) 2024-2027
	Warren Whyte (South) 2022-2025
	John Wilde (South West) 2024-2027
	Chris Williamson (President-Elect) 2024-2025

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Legal and administrative details

RIBA Board of Trustees

Murray Orr Business and Enter rise – from 9 A ril 2020 p p

The members of the Board are also trustees of RIBA. Page 41 provides more information on RIBA’s governance.

Roger Shrimplin Honorar Secretar – from 27 Se tember 2023 y y p

Jack Pringle Chair of the Board from 1 Jan 2021

Sumita Singha Education and Learnin – from 17 Jan 2022 g

MaryAnne Stevens Herita e – from 9 A ril 2020 g p

Philip Allsopp from 1 October 2024

Marjorie Strachan Or anisational Chan e – from 15 Ma 2020 g g y

Simon Allford from 1 Se t 2021 to 31 Au ust 2024 p g

Jo Bacon

Culture and Events – from 9 A ril 2020 to 31 Au ust 2024 p g

Committees

Nik Benford Di ital – from 17 Jan 2022 g

• Audit and Risk Committee: This committee is tasked with overseeing RIBA’s internal audit and control procedures, managing the relationship with its external auditor, and providing oversight of risk management controls. It reviews internal and external audit reports, monitors the effectiveness of control systems, and makes recommendations regarding audit programmes, auditor appointments, and financial allocations.

Jennifer Dixon Membershi En a ement – from 17 Jan 2022 p g g

Tom Foggin from 1 October 2024

Muyiwa Oki President – from 1 Se tember 2023 p

• Cultural Knowledge and Outreach Committee: This committee oversees RIBA’s cultural knowledge and

Femi Oresanya Honorar Treasurer – from 27 Se tember 2023 y p

outreach activities, including managing collections, exhibitions, events and the RIBA Awards, as well as public and school engagement, donations, and the dissemination of knowledge. Its purpose is to assist the Board in maintaining appropriate oversight of these activities.

• Education & Learning Committee: This committee is responsible for overseeing RIBA’s education and learning activities, encompassing the validation of global architectural education, the distribution of grants and bursaries, and the development of continuing professional development (CPD) pathways. It also makes recommendations on educational policies, identifies risks in educational delivery, and monitors commercial learning initiatives.

• Membership Committee: The Membership Committee oversees all membership-related activities, including global membership engagement, retention and development, as well as maintaining accurate membership lists. It reviews and recommends policies on membership categories, benefits and fees, manages the register of members, and oversees regulations for Chartered Practices and Specialist Practitioners.

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Legal and administrative details

• Nominations Committee: This committee primarily makes non-binding recommendations for the appointment of Council Members, Honorary Officers, trustees and members of various Council and Board committees. Its work involves evaluating the skills, knowledge, experience and diversity of potential candidates to identify suitable individuals, ensuring a merit-based selection process that considers a wide range of backgrounds.

• Standards Committee: This committee is tasked with setting professional standards for RIBA and overseeing its conduct function. Its responsibilities encompass establishing codes of conduct for members and Chartered Practices, overseeing compliance with declarations, and determining disciplinary procedures for conduct issues, including taking disciplinary action such as investigations, suspensions and removals. Additionally, it sets professional competency criteria for various member types, defines continuing professional development (CPD) compliance policy.

• Practice & Policy Committee: This committee oversees RIBA’s services that support architectural practices and practitioners, develops policy positions and manages relationships with regulatory bodies. Its responsibilities include addressing legislation and regulatory changes, engaging with the Architects Registration Board (ARB) and industry organisations, and monitoring issues that require clear policy articulation.

Committee Chairs

Audit and Risk Committee: Mark Jarvis

• Cultural Knowledge and Outreach Committee: MaryAnne Stevens

• Remuneration Committee: This committee is responsible for overseeing RIBA’s remuneration policy and the compensation of its executive, President and other trustees. Its remit includes making recommendations to the Board on remuneration policy, advising on formal procedures, ensuring remuneration aligns with RIBA’s strategic aims, and reviewing and approving remuneration proposals. The committee also advises on remuneration packages, including benefits and pensions, while ensuring the objectivity of its recommendations.

Education & Learning Committee: Sumita Singha

Membership Committee: Tom Foggin

Nominations Committee: Muyiwa Oki/Jack Pringle Practice & Policy Committee: Jennifer Dixon Remuneration Committee: Marjorie Strachan

Standards Committee: Jonathan Rees

Group Executive Team

Valerie Vaughan-Dick Chief Executive Karen Beamish Executive Director of Products & Services

Adrian Dobson

Executive Director of Professional Knowled e and Standards g Belinda Irlam-Mowbray appointed as Interim Executive Director Membership Ex erience in Jul 2024 p y

Jo Keaney Executive Director of Corporate Services (From August 2024) Melanie Mayfield

Executive Director of Communications & Marketin g Oliver Urquhart–Irvine

Executive Director of Architecture Pro rammes & Collections g Laura Webb

Executive Director of Membership Experience (Until July 2024)

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Principal advisors

Bankers

Barclays Bank, 1 Churchill Place, Canary Wharf, London, E14 5HP

Auditors

MHA, 6th Floor, 2 London Wall Place, London EC2Y 5AU Auditors, 110 Golden Lane, London, EC1Y 0TG

RSM UK Risk Assurance Services LLP, Internal Auditors, One London Square, Cross Lanes, Guildford, Surrey, GU1 1UN

Senior Staff

Helen Castle

Director of Publishin & Learnin Content g g

Christine Cavanagh Director of Membershi Ex erience & Su ort UK p p pp

Steven Cross Director of Commercial Develo ment p

Jamie Hunt Director of Governance & Le al Affairs g

Jenny Russell Director of Education & Learnin g Adrian Steel Director of Librar & Collections y Carl Straw Director of Human Resources Alex Tait

Director of Practice & Individual Knowled e g

Robbie Turner Director of Inclusion & Diversit y

Belinda Irlam-Mowbray

Solicitors

Principal Lawyers Capsticks Solicitors LLP, 1 St George’s House, East St George’s Road, Wimbledon, London, SW19 4DR

Investment Managers and Advisors

Endowment fund: Schroders, 12 Moorgate, London, EC2R 6DA

Investment fund advisors: Lane Clark & Peacock LLP, 95 Wigmore Street, London, W1U 1D

Interim Executive Director of Membershi Ex erience p p

Kamaljit Kandola Director of Professional Standards

Nick Klee Director of Technolo gy

Simon Leicester Chief Financial Officer

Alison Mackinder

Director of Professional Education Programmes

Steven Plimmer

Director of Marketin g

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Principal advisors

Public benefit

We have referred to the guidance contained in the Charity Commission’s general guidance on public benefit when reviewing our aims and objectives and in planning our future activities. In particular, the trustees have considered how planned activities will contribute to the aims and objectives they have set. RIBA provides public benefit in several ways. To provide public benefit, we:

• Validate UK and overseas schools of architecture, ensuring a high standard of quality of higher education

• Champion the RIBA Chartered Practice scheme, which encourages universal design excellence and a high level of customer service

• Deliver the RIBA Awards programme, which identifies the best recently completed projects, new and renovated, to inspire the profession to raise and maintain the standard of good architecture and a public that is more aware of the benefits of good design

• Run a free telephone Information Line that helps members of the public with matters relating to architecture, architects and construction

• Host RIBApix.com, the online resource with over 85,000 images from the RIBA Collections, available free of charge as an educational resource, and to buy

• Offer free public access to the British Architectural Library, which makes available the premier architectural resource in the UK and one of the leading specialist libraries in the world

• Provide free access to the reading and study rooms at the V&A and at RIBA’s out store, together with free online access to one of the world’s premier collections of architectural art and photographs

• Offer free exhibitions at 66 Portland Place, the V&A and elsewhere, which help RIBA share its collections and promote a better understanding of architecture among a wider public audience

• Devise and deliver events and talks which highlight issues of public interest about the built environment and stimulate debate within the profession and wider community

• Support our members going into schools to talk to students about the role of the architect

• Run architecture.com, a free resource about architecture and a gateway to the British Architectural Library catalogue, which ensures that the RIBA Collections are more readily accessible to researchers and the public

• Partner with other like–minded organisations, such as the BBC and the Open University, to extend the reach of our work with the public to target new audiences

• Support our branches through the Local Initiative Fund so that they can create exhibitions and events that engage the public in their area.

106 RIBA — Annual Report and Financial Statements December 2024

Supporters

The following trusts and foundations, individuals and companies have supported RIBA through donations, legacies and grants of over £1,000 in 2024.

Trust and Foundations

The Bloxham Charitable Trust

The British Architectural Library Trust (USA) The Charles Peel Charitable Trust Rosenber Memorial Fund g The Shanta Foundation

Practices and Companies

Individuals and Legacies

Hans Eisner legacy

Joanna Lewinski

The famil of Kenneth Mark y

In addition, RIBA received other donations from individuals who requested to remain anonymous.

AHR

Hawkins/Brown

Haworth Tom kins p

ORMS

Scott Brownri gg

Wren Insurance Association

RIBA — Annual Report and Financial Statements December 2024

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