The IHBC’s first Research Note (RN) for 2022 has been posted on the IHBC’s ToolBox, with our regular update of ‘Market Intelligence’ on England’s local authority (LA) conservation-related jobs from our ‘IHBC Jobs etc.’ service (RN2022/1).
IHBC Policy Committee Chair Roy Lewis said: ‘We are indebted to Bob Kindred for this excellent and most useful analysis.’
‘Bob has diligently monitored advertisements for local authority conservation officer posts since 1998 on a continuous weekly basis.’
‘His conclusions are based on a very high proportion of the actual jobs advertised and are therefore highly reliable – no better intelligence exists regarding this specific market.’
‘Whilst it is good to see that Bob has identified a recovery in the jobs market over the last twelve months, it is disappointing to see a significant reduction in recent years in the proportion of local authorities that expect applicants to be IHBC members. We know that the IHBC needs to address this trend.’
‘Of course, whilst an analysis of this sort cannot identify the calibre of the people taking up the advertised posts, the reduction in salary levels noted for the first time this year, possibly reflects recruitment at lower levels of experience than in the past. This, together with the reduction in the need for professional recognition of competence, is a concern.’
Bob Kindred MBE BA IHBC MRTPI, writes:
… This Research Note summarises the job vacancies advertised largely on the IHBC’s web pages in 2021 under the section on ‘Jobs etc’. It provides a detailed picture of long-term trends in the market including job requirements, qualifications and levels of remuneration, together with regional variations.
Executive Summary
- The Institute’s data set now covers about 2,060 posts continuously over 24 years since 1998.
- The year of 2021 was notable in two respects: the apparent recovery of the local authority jobs market following the Covid-19 pandemic and the first fall in year-on-year average salaries in England since 2015-16 possibly reflecting recruitment at lower levels of expertise and experience than in the past – in all Branch areas.
- Recruitment levels have edged up slightly over the last three years but remain well below those in the first decade of the century.
- The average median salary advertised for advertised posts in 2021 was £33,246- a fall of 3.6% on 2020. This is set against average full-time earnings in the UK in 2021 (according to the Office of National Statistics) which were £25,971.
- In 2016 the Institute derived satisfaction from the expectation from employers that 71% of applicants would be full members of IHBC. This has subsequently fallen back and appears to have stabilised at around 58% in 2021 (55% in 2020).
- Specification of sole Royal Town Planning Institute membership as a job requirement almost disappeared but rose to 21% when considered an alternative to membership of IHBC. No posts specifically requested membership of CIfA as a potential qualifying requirement.
- Development management advice, appeals and enforcement continued to dominate prioritised job functions with a low but slightly expanding level of diversification of workload functions continuing to be evident; possibly a function of resource constraints.
- The number of posts re-advertised within six months in England increased notably on 2020 seemingly reflecting some difficulty in filling posts.
- Recruitment for posts in North Branch continued to be low (four, but just three in 2020), covering Cleveland, Cumbria, Durham, Northumberland and Tyne & Wear; four in Yorkshire and Humberside and five in the West Midlands – Hereford, Worcester, Shropshire, Staffordshire, Warwickshire – but were up elsewhere;
- One potentially notable aspect of the jobs market in 2022 was the anticipated effect that the government-backed, fixed-term, local- listing pilot surveys might have but the impact of this notable initiative proved inconclusive….
… NB: although the IHBC is active across the United Kingdom the analysis in this Research Note relates solely to information gleaned about England’s Local Authorities. (see paragraph 1.4)
Read the IHBC’s ToolBox Research Note ‘Market Intelligence: Local Authority Conservation Specialists Jobs Market 2021’ (RN 2022/1)
See more on the IHBC’s ‘Jobs etc.’ service and sign up for notices HERE
See all the ToolBox resources, and see more Research Notes there
See more background on the 2020 jobs market intelligence Note
