The IHBC’s first Research Note (RN) for 2024 (RN2024/1) has been posted on the IHBC’s ToolBox, offering our annual update of ‘Market Intelligence’ on England’s local authority (LA) conservation-related jobs, based on our ‘IHBC Jobs etc.’ service.
… The Institute’s continuous data from 1998 (26 years) now covers 2,214 posts…
Bob Kindred MBE IHBC, Research Note author and research lead for the programme, said: ‘This new Research Note summarises the job vacancies advertised largely on the IHBC’s web pages in 2023 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 continuous data from 1998 (26 years) now covers 2,214 posts.
- The year of 2023 saw a decline of 20% in the number of advertised vacancies by comparison with 2021 and 2022.
- Recruitment levels remain well below those in the first decade of this century.
- 90% of the vacancies were for full-time posts on the permanent establishment
- There has been a distinct move away from part-time and/or fixed term posts more evident in recent years.
- Specific fixed-term posts in support of centrally generated grant-aid project posts declined sharply in 2023.
- The average median salary for advertised posts in 2023 was £37,892 marking a rise of 5.1% over the previous year (and with the exception of 2022, the largest annual increase for seven years).
- The equivalent average full-time salary [in the UK in 2023] according to Office of National Statistics calculations was £35,000.
- 68% of local government recruiters in 2023 expected job applicants to be Full Members of IHBC (or working towards this status) although this was a slight fall from 73% in 2022.
- As has been the case of over two decades, reactive development management advice, appeals and enforcement continue to be the dominant prioritised job functions and continuing resource constraints possibly reflected in only limited prioritisation of more proactive tasks.
- Somewhat against a long-standing trend in London of higher CO salaries reflecting higher living costs etc., average median salaries were 4.5% below the national average in 2023.
