Hard times breed hard times

摘要

Following last week's news that the RIBA's student hardship fund is facing a hardship crisis of its own, it has emerged that funds for the Architects Benevolent Society are also disappearing fast. Jane Duncan, the RIBA's vice president of practice, has described the society's funds as "getting perilously low" - a description that might at first seem hard to square with a charity that has ￡12 million invested in stocks and shares. However, the ABS ran up a deficit of ￡400,000 last year, having to sell some of its shares to make ends meet. It is now cutting jobs and bracing itself for a funding shortfall this year of ￡250,000.