RICS on reviews: ‘The world does not stand still’

This column from RICS’ director of standards and professional development was written in response to Rob Bower’s recent column on the institution. COMMENT: Property and the built environment play a pivotal role in the welfare of the economy, society and the natural environment, and good outcomes depend heavily on a vibrant, diverse profession, founded on trusted professional standards upheld through independent regulation.  Public and client confidence in valuations lies at the heart of this and, as the leading professional body for property valuation, RICS is committed to maintaining a global profession that is trusted and remains in demand, working within a world class professional framework.  Valuations produced by RICS-regulated members underpin financial reporting and decision-making for trillions of pounds of assets, and the standards that RICS valuers work to all around the world play a critical role in supporting markets, by creating consistency and transparency.  However, the world does not stand still, and professions must embrace scrutiny and change if their standards are to remain relevant and trusted in the public eye. That’s why all RICS’s public interest functions (education, practice standards and regulation) are governed by an independent majority board, chaired by Dame Janet Paraskeva, ensuring independence from vested interests.  It is this board that appointed Peter Pereira Gray – a respected leader, with deep professional expertise in capital and property markets – to lead this independent review on its behalf and make evidence-based recommendations that will ensure confidence in investment valuations is maintained.  Since its launch late last year, the review has attracted the interest and evidence of many stakeholders from all sides of the valuation process, and the evidence is currently under consideration. The scope of the review is the way valuations of property assets for investment purposes are conducted, and the published terms include valuation methodology, property risk analysis, independence and objectivity and measuring confidence in valuer performance. For the avoidance of doubt, this initiative is entirely separate from the Defining Our Future consultation, led by RICS president Kath Fontana, whose findings across a wide range of issues were published in June and which is serving to inform the next five-year RICS strategy being developed by the governing council of the chartered surveying profession. The board will receive Peter’s independent valuation review findings later this year, and will then set out a formal response to his recommendations.  Luay Al-Khatib is director of standards and professional development at RICS