Call for Evidence. How many Planners are Chartered?

As you might have heard, during podcast episode 159 there was a discussion about the attractiveness of RTPI membership to recent graduates. The point was made that, if the Masters required for chartered status burdens graduates with a year's more debt, and employers, certainly consultancies, do not in a tight labour market require such status, why would they stay at University for that final year or take on two years of part-time study?

Then as you might have seen last week, planners at Basildon were subjected to some pretty unpleasant behaviour by some councillors on the planning committee. That led me to wonder how many planners within LPAs are chartered and so might expect to be able to rely on the RTPI for support were they to launch a complaint about this kind of thing.

What proportion of planners working in the public and private sectors are actually members of the RTPI and if they aren't why aren't they? If they are, but their employers pay their fees, would they themselves if their employers stopped so doing? These seem like interesting questions to be asking and I am not sure that anybody actually has so this is an attempt at doing so.

If you work in the public sector please click this link and if you work in the private sector please click this link.

The surveys will not take very long at all and the results, which I will share when the surveys close on 30 April, though a little unsophisticated, will hopefully provide the basis for a deeper dive into whatever they reveal in due course.

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