Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment: Architecture Watchdog

The government's architecture watchdog is to face a new inquiry prompted by concerns over potential conflicts of interests in the way it reviews major building projects.

The select committee of Office of the Deputy Prime Minister today announced it will review the role and effectiveness of the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment (Cabe).

The committee's chairman, Andrew Bennett, said he was concerned that Cabe's influential assessments of new building projects were informed more by friendships and business connections than by objective standards.

The announcement of the MPs' investigation comes after a tough few months for Cabe. In April its founding chief executive, Jon Rouse, left for the Housing Corporation. In June Cabe's chairman, Sir Stuart Lipton, a prominent developer, was forced to stand down after a government audit concluded that the agency was too close to developers.

Cabe has a remit to review all new major building proposals. The verdicts of its design review panel carry considerable weight with local planning authorities.

Cabe insists that it has a rigorous system for avoiding conflicts of interests in the way schemes are assessed by its architect-dominate d panel.

But Mr Bennett is concerned that the "cliquey" design world means that there is not enough separation between panel