Councils planning teams lack capacity to meet major objectives, research shows

A new survey has found almost 80% of local authority planning and placemaking teams had difficulties attracting qualified candidates.

Research, which was found in the Recruitment and Skills survey by Public Practice, has revealed 66% of local government place professionals think their team does not have the necessary bandwidth and skills to tackle their authority’s top priorities.

Some of the issues that are failing to be met include reducing inequality and poverty and meeting targets to reach net zero.

In addition, survey responses also display that job satisfaction of placemaking professionals is being affected by the lack of capacity. 54% of respondents said their councils had difficulty retaining staff and one in seven of those who answered said they want to leave the public sector.

The difficulty in retaining staff is reflected in the most recent local government workforce data which shows the number of full-time equivalent workers in local councils has plummeted by almost a third over the past decade.

While the impact of Covid may have played a part, the reduction in local government workers appears to show no signs of slowing as the number of full-time positions has fallen by 10% in 18 months, data from the Office of National Statistics shows.

Victoria Hills, Chief Executive of the Royal Town Planning Institute said: ‘The results of this research reveal a concerning reality for local authorities, but provide an accurate depiction of what we are seeing in our own research. On the ground, Local Planning Authorities struggling under the weight of budget reductions, resulting in unmanageable workloads and overstretched staff.

‘Without well-resourced, qualified planners, local planning authorities cannot meet the crucial housing and infrastructure needs of our communities. Whilst we welcome recent announcements on the planning skills delivery fund, we must urgently address the systemic resourcing issues to safeguard both our economy and the well-being of planners.’

Although figures from the survey paint a pessimistic picture, over the past five years Public Practice, which was founded in 2017, has attracted more than 2,700 professionals to apply to its placement programme, with more than 90% of them working in the private sector at the time of application.

The programme supports the public sector’s placemaking capabilities by recruiting skilled candidates to year-long placements within councils.

Image: Mike Hindle

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