Update from Justin Young, RICS CEO – February 2025

Last year, we made significant progress on our transformation journey.  We expanded our member engagement efforts globally by hosting more than 500 events, attracting over 30,000 attendees. This included introducing our ‘Shaping the Future’ roadshow in the UK where we met with more than 600 members to find out how we can better serve you and the profession at large. You can read more on what we have changed as a result of your input here. These changes compliment a raft of other improvements made in the last year including doubling our Matrics membership internationally and the launch of a pilot Consumer Working Group to better serve the public interest, to name a few examples.

Feedback from member events and member boards have been integral in shaping the future of our organisation. To achieve our goal of being a world class experience-led and member-centric organisation, we are now renewing our operating model. This includes looking at how our teams are structured and how they operate, with a focus on bringing the right people with the right skills together in the right places to deliver maximum value for our members and stakeholders.

Whether you are a quantity surveyor, valuer, building surveyor or starting your journey to become Chartered, we want your experience of being a member to feel more rewarding at both a professional and personal level through RICS:

• Increasing local resources and autonomy to create more high-quality CPD initiatives, with more in-person networking opportunities, including for small businesses, employers, universities and prospective candidates.
• Delivering a continuous stream of high value standards, thought leadership and platform topics that tackle the subjects that are important to our members and stakeholders. These will help ensure good practice by our members while raising the profile and influence of the profession and the institution.
• Improving our communications channels to ensure our members and stakeholders have access to the right information easily, whether that is through our people or digital platforms.
• Strengthened commercial focus, meaning we are reducing our reliance on subscriptions while continuing to deliver on our vision of achieving a built and natural environment that is sustainable, resilient and inclusive for all. 

This new model will also work hand-in-hand with improvements from the regulation team, including how candidates are trained and assessed for their APC and the development of new pathways into the profession.

As we transition to the new operating model some member contact points may shift globally, but we have carried out the necessary planning to ensure members experience a seamless service throughout this transition.

These changes are a significant part of our transformation journey, so I can assure you that we are approaching them with the necessary care and attention to ensure they deliver the best possible outcomes.

All of these changes will enable us to better address critical challenges facing our profession, such as the significant skills shortage. This week in the UK, it’s National Apprenticeship Week, and a fitting time to talk about our work to inspire the next generation of surveyors. According to the Construction Skills Network, we’ll need more than 225,000 additional workers to take up careers in the industry by 2027, just in the UK. Globally, the skills shortage is holding back our profession, slowing new home delivery, and halting progress on sustainability.

Engaging with organisations like the Department for Education, we have been promoting a strategy to draw in new talent – including the creation of the Welsh Built Environment GCSE, developed in collaboration with other industry leaders and education providers. We advocate strongly for embedding built environment topics into the curriculum and enhancing support for apprenticeships through additional incentives and streamlined administration processes.

This is a worldwide issue, and so the topic of skills will also be a key theme when RICS attends MIPIM next month. This year we’ll be advocating for the profession as an official strategic partner of the event and our visible profile will ensure that the voices and expertise of the RICS membership are unmissable. Alongside skills, we’ll spotlight housing and sustainability as key issues impacting the built environment right now. With an audience of changemakers from across the world, the RICS platform and programme of events has been designed for collaboration. On the ground, we’ll help shape positive change, promoting the capability of RICS members. 

MIPIM will be one of countless opportunities for connection throughout the year. Our Shaping the Future Roadshow will expand internationally, with the first events planned for late Spring. We’ll share more information in the coming weeks about how you can participate in the global conversation that is helping to shape RICS.