Update from Justin Young, RICS CEO – October 2025

Part of RICS’ mission is to ensure that the surveying profession’s voice is heard on critical issues impacting both the built and natural environments. Through strategic engagement worldwide, we’re working to influence change for the public good.

In recent weeks, party political conferences have taken place in the UK. At the Liberal Democrat, Labour, and Conservative conferences, RICS members, colleagues and I delivered a programme of activity to amplify the expertise of RICS and our membership.

Across the three conferences, RICS joined panels and centred our profession in discussions with parliamentarians, campaigners and RICS members. We partnered with housing associations Peabody and G15, and with RIBA, to drive workable solutions to real problems and spark connection and collaboration. From the delivery of new towns and wider housing demands, to retrofitting, the skills shortage and supporting next generation talent, RICS voices could not be missed. We have also provided an initial responded to proposals from the UK Government for major changes in home buying and selling. You can find it here, where there is also a link to hear our senior specialist Mairead Carroll discussing the proposals on the BBC via iPlayer. Over the next few weeks, RICS will work with members to shape a full response to government. We will provide advice and insight into how best to deliver meaningful reforms which support consumers and improve the home buying journey, while protecting and utilising the vast skill and experience of our members. If you’d like to, please register to participate in a member roundtable event to further discuss our response to the proposals.

When issues like housing supply and quality, sustainability, infrastructure, skills and place making are on the agenda, it’s essential that discussions are informed by those who understand the challenges first hand, and that’s what RICS and our members have done this month.

These are global concerns, and our public affairs teams around the world are working to strengthen relationships with policymakers in each of our regions, with engagement taking place in recent weeks in Kenya, Qatar and South Africa specifically.

While it’s important that we help to shape policy, as an employer and professional body, we also recognise our responsibility to shape a more inclusive and accessible built and natural environment where everyone can thrive and achieve their full potential.  

We have made great strides this year in identifying and shaping more focused strategies to address critical areas like social mobility; accessibility to the profession; and gender and racial equity. After nearly two years of in-depth auditing and strategic planning with an external provider, we have been awarded a quality mark for the RACE Equality Code, demonstrating our focused commitment to improving racial equity for employees and our members.

We’re also continuing work on our Inspired to Hired project, collaborating with grassroots organisations to improve social mobility and access to careers in our sector. Our DEI team has been engaging with members in our global regions to explore how we can scale this project worldwide.

In the coming days we’ll be publishing our first Skills Report, which is an exploration of current and future skills gaps in surveying based on members’ experiences. All of this work is closely connected: we must understand and expand capacity in our profession in order to meet the needs of the societies we live in.

We will be privileged to accelerate these efforts in the coming years alongside Susanne Eickermann-Riepe FRICS, who has been elected as our 2026 RICS Senior Vice President. Susanne brings extensive experience within the real estate industry and has held many advisory board and committee positions in her career. We offer her our congratulations and look forward to working with her from 1 January 2026 to support our members and the organisation’s ambitions worldwide.

Finally, you will have heard from our Acting President, Nicholas Maclean, OBE, RD, FRICS, last week in relation to our membership fees for 2026. We are, as ever, mindful of keeping the impact of any increases on membership fees to a minimum, and as such our 2026 fees have been set in line with the UK inflation rate of 3.5%. You can read a more detailed breakdown of actual costs by country and member grade here.

Your contribution to the surveying profession is invaluable. Now and in the future, we have a collective power to bring about real change for the public good. Thank you for your ongoing commitment to our profession.