Charity head quits as plans for 'radical' RICS fee hike are rejected

The chief executive of a charity that trains young disadvantaged QSs has resigned over differences with the organisation's chairman.

Kevin Drugan handed in his notice at the Chartered Surveyors' Training Trust on Tuesday. He is understood to have disagreed with the chairman, Roger Southam, over how the trust should be funded.

Drugan is likely to take up a regeneration-related role at QS Dearle & Henderson.

He was CEO of the CSTT for three years, while Southam, who runs property manager Chainbow, joined around six months ago.

Drugan wanted the trust, which pays for 16 to 19-year olds to train to become chartered surveyors, to seek funding from RICS members. He was campaigning for £10 to be added to the RICS annual membership fee to fund the cause.

Southam told QS News he was against the idea: "We are looking to work with the RICS rather than try anything radical." He said Drugan's idea was "unworkable" because the RICS had already increased its membership fee recently.

There is no shortage of interest in the industry from young people, all that’s missing is the funding to train them.

Kevin Drugan

Southam said Drugan's resignation had been "a bolt out of the blue" and claimed the CEO had resigned for "personal" reasons.

Drugan, in an interview with QS News hours before he resigned, said: "The industry is going to have to start contributing more towards the cost of training future quantity surveyors. Government funding for construction apprenticeships at the trust has been cut by 25% per capita for 2006-2007 with a further cut of 25% to be implemented in 2007-2008. My favoured option would be a mandatory £10 levy on all UK RICS members."

Drugan said the RICS' new president Graham Chase was interested in the idea, as were a few governing council members.

The CSTT won the best training initiative category at last year's inaugural QS News awards.

Drugan argued that imposing a levy on the RICS' UK membership alone would be enough for the trust to take on an extra 40 students a year. At present the trust's annual costs are £500,000, which is provided by the government. It takes on between 25 and 35 students a year and has around 70 students on its books at any one time. Drugan reasoned that the 90,000 strong UK membership could raise almost £1m each year.

He said the industry needed to "put its hands in its pockets" in order to plug the skills gap. "There is no shortage of interest in the industry from young people - I had 3,000 enquiries last year - all that's missing is the funding to train them."