Helping councils recruit planners and surveyors
Since its launch in 2023, the LGA’s Pathways to Planning programme has brought in excess of 200 new planners into more than 100 local authorities in England, strengthening capacity in a profession with long-standing recruitment and retention difficulties.
Pathways to Planning is a government-funded graduate programme aimed at recruiting a diverse pipeline of talent into built environment careers in local authorities, statutory consultees and councils hosting nationally significant infrastructure projects.
This year, for the first time, the programme has expanded to deliver two pathways for employers – helping them recruit not just planners, but also surveyors.
The existing planning stream delivers graduates who train as planners or specialise in an adjacent discipline, such as architecture or ecology, to build speciality knowledge within a planning team.
A new dedicated surveying stream will deliver graduates to work as surveyors in local authorities, including in construction project-management roles. Graduates on the surveying strand will train on a part-time Master’s degree – selected by the employing local authority to meet their service needs – in either general surveying or construction project management, accredited by the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors.
Participating councils receive a bursary of £10,000 per Pathways to Planning graduate, to help cover the cost of course fees. Support for the costs of employing a graduate is also available.
Local authorities with high housing delivery and local plan needs will be considered for salary bursaries when requesting a graduate planner. Bursaries valued at £40,000 per graduate are still available, and the programme offers increased support based on high planning need and organisational financial restrictions.
The surveying strand also has a limited number of £40,000 salary bursaries available to councils employing graduate surveyors and construction project managers. Applications for funding are made as part of a council’s application to the graduate scheme.
As councils across England continue to face acute workforce shortages and rising expectations for high-quality planning and development outcomes, the Pathways to Planning programme has become a critical sector intervention.
Planning capacity challenges are well documented: 91 per cent of planning departments report recruitment difficulties, while 72 per cent report retention challenges.
Findings from the LGA’s ‘Local government capacity survey: building control’ demonstrated that one in four building control posts across England was vacant as of 1 October 2023, rising to one in three assistant or trainee surveyor posts.
Pathways to Planning offers a more sustainable and financially resilient method of building in-house expertise.
Over time, supported graduates strengthen organisational development, reduce turnover and enable better workforce planning.
The next cohort of graduates will start work in September 2026 and can be hired into graduate planner and/or graduate surveyor roles.
Local authorities and statutory consultees have until the end of February to apply to hire a graduate. If you’re interested in finding out more, visit our website or contact pathways.planning@local.gov.uk.