'When you're surrounded as I am in the roles that I do - I sit on the National Infrastructure Commission, the Thames Estuary Growth Commission, I chair the independent design panel for High Speed 2, and I'm a professor at Westminster - all of those things need an independent voice and a voice that asks government in particular why so often, people and place aren't thought about. As a creative industry one thing that we're incredibly good at is thinking about the future because we're innovative and we come at things laterally. Design isn't just about aesthetics, it's about problem solving, and those are the kinds of people that you need really early on in the process, be it policy-making, be it building. If you integrate design early on it doesn't cost money, it saves money because it helps you anticipate not only the problems but the opportunities. If we can learn to take risks, we can learn to put our head above the parapet, then we will start to reimagine our built environment which is I think one of the most extraordinary opportunities that we have.'