The Labour Government's ambitious plan to build 1.5 million homes before the next general election faces a critical threat from a looming exodus of town planners, according to alarming new data.
Mass Departure of Planning Professionals
One in five UK planners intend to either leave the profession entirely or retire by 2028, creating a severe staffing crisis that could derail housing construction targets. The Royal Town Planning Institute (RTPI) revealed these concerning figures, highlighting that nearly two-thirds of existing planners believe their teams already lack the capacity to meet current demand.
Victoria Hills, chief executive of the RTPI, explained the fundamental problem to the Financial Times: "The private sector is generating lots of applications for developments, but there isn't the capacity in local government to take them through the process and identify the impact, whether it's flooding, noise or the environmental effect."
Local Authorities Struggling with Vacancies
The scale of the staffing crisis becomes clear when examining vacancy rates across local authorities. According to the FT's analysis, approximately 85% of councils had at least one unfilled planning position, with most dealing with multiple vacancies simultaneously.
Earlier research from Unison supports these findings, showing that one in nine planning posts (11%) remained empty across the country. The union had previously warned that this shortage of planning officers could completely "derail" affordable housing delivery plans.
The roots of this crisis trace back to spending cuts during the 2010s, which created severe shortages that have persisted for years. Understaffing has become a primary reason why planning decisions have slowed significantly in recent times.
Salary Disparity and Construction Sector Woes
A significant factor driving planners away from public service is the substantial pay gap between local authorities and private developers. Public sector planners typically earn between £40,000 and £50,000, while their counterparts working for private development companies can command salaries around £80,000.
Ms Hills emphasised the broader implications: "None of the system works if you don't have the capacity in local government." She further warned that delivering 1.5 million new homes and starting 150 nationally significant infrastructure projects would prove extremely challenging without adequate funding and training for local authority planning services.
The planning crisis coincides with troubling news from the construction sector, which shed workers at its fastest rate in five years during October 2025. This marks the tenth consecutive month of contraction in the industry, while business activity expectations for the coming year remain significantly weaker than the long-term average.
This perfect storm of planning shortages and construction sector decline creates substantial obstacles for the government's housing ambitions, potentially leaving millions of Britons waiting longer for affordable homes.
