A survey of Planning Associations and Built Environment Professions in the Commonwealth released on 24 June. Responses from 4 disciplines across 33 Commonwealth countries were received. The key findings of the survey reveal that:

1. There is a critical lack of capacity in many of the Commonwealth countries which are rapidly urbanising and are among the most vulnerable.

2. There is a lack of educational and institutional capacity to grow the professions fast enough in many Commonwealth countries.

3. There is increasing recognition of weakness in built environment policy (ie planning policy and building code) in many Commonwealth countries in terms of standards, implementation, and enforcement.

The survey results are a critical tool to consider the capacity of many Commonwealth countries to resource the growth of their cities and are available for use by the profession at http://commonwealthsustainablecities.org/survey/