IT MAY be good sport, but the banker bashing game is getting out of hand. Of course, massive mistakes were made and it is a gift for politicians to divert attention from their shortcomings – that applies to Messrs Brown and Cameron – but it is in danger of demonising the perfectly decent people who work in the banking system. They are certainly not Madoffs or Stanfords.

I would suggest we are all a little bit to blame and were carried along on a wave of optimism and opportunism. 'Surely not me,' I hear you say. 'What have I done?'

Well, it may be no more than persuading a bank to lend you more than you can comfortably afford to repay – or juggling credit on your credit cards.

Most of us have been drawn in some way or other into the never never culture. We even build our schools and hospitals on this basis – and those chickens are now coming home to roost. My late Dad, who would rather starve than borrow, would be spinning in his grave if he knew the risks we all take now.

So what should we do to get through these difficult times – and are there some good things that will come out of it?

I tackle these questions as part of BBC2 TV's Money Programme on Thursday evening. It is a difficult one for me because I expose what effect the severe cut back in development is having on our architectural practice, where we have made big salary sacrifices from the top and some redundancies. There are no big bonuses for us to forgo in our profession.

To me and my fellow directors some salary sacrifice is such an obvious first step, but it has attracted national attention following an article by Rosie Millard in the Sunday Times about ethical ways companies are reacting to the recession.

We see it as a necessary part of ensuring survival at a time when others are going under.

Having lived through the last big recession, at the beginning of the Nineties, when we took a 20 per cent pay cut across the board, I knew we had to move fast as soon as those tell-tale signs appeared.

That action then enabled us to keep the core team together and we were fortunate when a large listed building fire in Bath rescued us.

We cannot rely on such an 'act of God' to rescue us this time.

I have enormous admiration for the way everyone in our practice has reacted to a very difficult situation, but have no doubt that it has been greatly assisted by the knowledge that we have taken the biggest cuts from the top. Surely this should be the norm – and maybe it is – but you would not think so from reading the national paper headlines.

So can any good come out of all this? I know it is a difficult thing to claim in the circumstances, but I really believe there is. We in general, and the development industry in particular, were charging ahead with little apparent doubt that money could be made.

Now we know that this is not so. Maybe it is an opportunity to reflect as to whether we can all achieve a better balance in our lives – one that is not driven by greed, but one that is much more socially and environmentally aware.

If so, maybe we shall have something to thank those bankers for!