Two out of three local authority planning and placemaking professionals believe their team does not have the capacity to meet their authority’s strategic objectives, according to a new survey.
Local government capacity problems are compounded by recruitment difficulties, with more than three-quarters of placemaking professionals (78%) admitting their council had difficulty attracting appropriately qualified or skilled candidates to fill the gaps in their teams.
The survey by not-for-profit social enterprise Public Practice found more than half of respondents (54%) said their councils had difficulty retaining staff and one in seven of those who answered (14%) said they wanted to quit the public sector.
Average job satisfaction reported by English public sector place professionals was 5.66 out of 10 - down from 6.32 last year.
More than two out of five respondents thought their team was not currently an accurate reflection of the diversity of the population they served.
This article was originally published by The MJ (£).
