Planning and development surveyor Job Information | National Careers Service

Job profiles

Planning and development surveyor

Hours

35-40 per week
Starting salary

£20,000 + per year

The work

Planning and development surveyors assess, design and manage development projects in towns, cities and rural areas.

Your work as a planning and development surveyor may involve:

regeneration of run-down estates
redevelopment of former industrial or 'brownfield' sites
property conservation in rural and urban areas.

You would be involved at each stage of a project from the initial site assessments right through to its completion. Depending on the project, your duties could include:

researching market data like land and property records
analysing figures using computer software
assessing whether plans are workable
presenting your recommendations to clients
overseeing planning applications
raising finances from funding bodies, investment companies and development agencies
negotiating contracts and tenders
advising clients about financial and legal matters such as compulsory purchases
working out the likely economic, social and environmental impact of a development.

You would work closely with town planners, architects and construction professionals. On completion of a project, you might work in a marketing role to promote the development site to interested parties.

Hours

You would work 35 to 40 hours a week. Some contracts may include early starts, late finishes and weekends in order to meet deadlines.

Your time would be split between office and site work. Some contracts may involve overnight stays away from home.

Income

Starting salaries can be between £20,000 and £24,000 a year.
Experienced surveyors can earn between £25,000 and £38,000.
Chartered surveyors can earn over £50,000 a year.

Figures are intended as a guideline only.

Entry requirements

You would need a degree or professional qualification accredited by the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) to work as a planning and development surveyor. Relevant subjects include:

surveying
business studies
economics
estate management
land and property development.

You can search for accredited qualifications on the dedicated RICS Courses website.

RICS Accredited Courses

If you have a non-accredited degree, you would need to take a RICS' accredited postgraduate course in surveying. You could do this through an employer's graduate traineeship, or through full-time study.

If you are working in property or construction, you could take a distance learning postgraduate conversion course with the College of Estate Management (CEM). For details, see the CEM website.

College of Estate Management (CEM)

If you have an HNC/HND or foundation degree in surveying or construction, you may be able to work as a surveying technician and take further training to fully qualify as a surveyor.

For more details about surveying careers and relevant degree programmes, contact the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS).

Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS).

Training and development

You should continue to update your knowledge and skills throughout your career. You would normally do this by working towards chartered status with the RICS or the Chartered Institute of Building's (CIOB) Faculty for Architecture and Surveying.

To qualify for chartered status through the RICS, you must complete the RICS Assessment of Professional Competence (APC) while you are working. You will need at least two years' relevant post graduate work experience and will have to attend an interview with a panel of assessors.

To apply for CIOB chartered status, you will need an accredited honours degree and two years' relevant work experience. For more information visit the CIOB website.

Chartered Institute of Building's (CIOB)

Your employer may encourage you to take one or more of the following work-based qualifications:

NVQ Diploma Level 3 in Built Environment Development and Control Technical Support
NVQ 3 and 4 in Construction Contracting Operations
NVQ 3 and 4 in Surveying, Property and Maintenance.

Skills and knowledge

excellent communication, negotiation and presentation skills
strong STEM skills (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths)
knowledge of local planning policies and procedures
good research and computer skills
good budget awareness and financial skills
networking skills
an understanding of environmental and sustainable development issues
report writing skills
the ability to work as part of a team
the ability to deal with a wide variety of people.

More information

College of Estate Management (Opens new window)
Whiteknights
Reading
Berkshire
RG6 6AW
Tel: 0800 019 9697
www.cem.ac.uk

Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) (Opens new window)
Parliament Square
London
SW1P 3AD
Tel: 0207 334 3875
www.rics.org

Chartered Institute of Building (Opens new window)
Englemere
Kings Ride
Ascot
Berkshire
SL5 7TB
Tel: 01344 630700
www.ciob.org.uk

Asset Skills (Opens new window)
2 The Courtyard
48 New North Road
Exeter
Devon
EX4 4EP
Tel: 01392 423399
Careers Advice: careers@assetskills.org
www.assetskills.org

Association of Building Engineers (Opens new window)
Lutyens House
Billing Brook Road
Weston Favell
Northampton
NN3 8NW
Tel: 0845 126 1058
www.abe.org.uk

Opportunities

The main opportunities are with local authorities, government departments, construction firms, property developers, commercial property companies, building conservation bodies and specialist surveying practices.

The growing importance of sustainable development means you could use your specialist knowledge of regeneration, conservation and land management to good effect.

Promotion options include project or senior management roles, partnership in private practice or self-employment as a consultant. You could move into other areas of surveying or town planning. You could also work overseas, for example on disaster-relief projects.

You may find the following useful for job vacancies and general reading (links open in a new window):

Job profiles are based on the latest information supplied to us by industry bodies, such as Sector Skills Councils. Please be aware that with the introduction of the Qualifications and Credit Framework there has been, and will continue to be, changes to vocational qualifications. For more information, please check with industry bodies directly.

We do not accept responsibility for the content of external sites.

Related industry information

Industry summary

The property and planning industry is part of the facilities management, housing, cleaning and support services, and parking sector, represented by Asset Skills Sector Skills Council. The sector workforce, which has continued to grow since 1998, represents 3% of the total UK workforce.

The property and planning industry covers both the private and public sectors and includes: acquiring, planning, surveying and valuing of commercial and residential property; plus valuing, selling, letting and managing of commercial and residential property.

Key facts:

The property and planning industry includes key areas of commercial and residential sales and lettings and property management.
There are 155,300 people working in the property industry in 37,200 companies.
There are significantly more full‐time than part‐time employees in the industry.
96% of all housing and property organisations have 10 or less employees.

Jobs in the industry include: estate agent; letting agent; surveyor; town planner; auctioneer; residential property or block manager; domestic energy assessor; and emerging jobs such as commercial energy assessor, housing energy adviser and community energy adviser.

National and regional data

The following provides a breakdown of the number of property sector employees in each of the Nations and English regions.

Region	Number of employees	Regional key characteristics
East Midlands	9,400	Nearly half (46%) of the property sector workforce in the East Midlands is aged over 50. A higher than average proportion is employed on a part‐time basis (43%)
East Of England	13,100	A significant proportion of the property sector workforce in the East of England is male (53%) and employed on a full‐ time basis (85%)
London	29,500	London is the largest employer of the property sector in England (19%). A significant proportion of employment is full‐time (81%), and a large proportion of the workforce is black and ethnic minorities (17%)
North East	6,300	The North East employs the smallest proportion of the property sector workforce across the English regions (4%)
North West	14,400	The North West employs 9% of the property sector workforce in England. A significant proportion of the workforce is female (61%)
South East	26,500	After London, the South East region is the second highest employer of the property sector (17%)
South West	15,200	The South West employs a significantly higher proportion of males (51%) compared to the workforce across England. 98% of the workforce is white
West Midlands	15,100	The West Midlands accounts for 10% of the property sector workforce in England.
Yorkshire & The Humber	11,000	Compared with other English regions, a significant proportion of the workforce is female (64%) and the majority is white (98%)
Northern Ireland	*	A significant proportion of the property sector workforce in Northern Ireland is female (66%) and the majority (58%) of the workforce is aged between 20‐29 years
Scotland	9,400	Scotland employs 6% of the total UK property sector workforce. Women make up 60% of employees, 98% of the workforce is white, with the majority employed on a full‐time basis (81%)
Wales	4,600	Wales employs 3% of the total UK property sector workforce. The majority, (60%) of the workforce is female and 99% of the workforce is white. Compared to the UK, high proportions are employed on a part‐time basis (36%)

Source: Annual Population Survey, Housing and Property Labour Market Intelligence Update, Asset Skills, 2008
* Due to a low sample base this figure is excluded.