The Local Government Association says the recruitment problems come as councils "struggle" to cope with new duties such as the post-Grenfell building safety system and reviewing the condition of social and private rented sector housing.

The LGA contacted all heads of human resources at councils in England to request they complete its annual workforce survey between March and May 2022. 119 councils (36%) responded. As well as the difficulties recruiting EHOs and building control officers, 58% had problems recruiting planning officers, 53% recruiting legal professionals, 43% ICT professionals and 28% had difficulty recruiting housing officers.

The survey also showed, however, that by far and away the most severe recruitment problems were in social care, topping out at 83% of respondents for children's social workers (92% for county councils).

Although the number of councils saying they had difficulties in staff retention, for roles impacting directly on housing standards regulation, were around half the number saying it was difficult to recruit for those roles, the numbers are still concerning: 36% for planning officers, 29% for both ICT and legal professionals 21% for building control, 21% for housing officers and 18% for EHOs.

Also instructive are the figures for the councils taking some form of action in an attempt to resolve recruitment and retention problems. Only 8% appear to be using agency staff, for example, and whilst 10% overall utilised "market supplements" this tactic sank to 7% for persuading EHOs and 2% for persuading housing officers to join or remain at a council.

The LGA says that these "significant staff shortages in local government risk having a serious impact on councils' capacity to deliver services" and the LGA Chair, Cllr. James Jamieson, said "In the coming years, some services are likely to continue to see a significant increase in demand which they will not be able to meet without an increase in the supply of skilled staff".

The full LGA 2022 Workforce Survey can be accessed here.

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