About the job

Job summary

The Markets, Partners and Place (MPP) Directorate leads Homes England’s delivery of major projects in priority places. This includes ‘Garden Settlements’ and projects that achieve transformative urban regeneration throughout England. The Directorate also leads our response to devolution and the establishment of long-term partnerships with Combined Authorities via our Strategic Place Partnership (SPP) model already in-place with Greater Manchester and now being rolled out across other Combined Authority areas. 

MPP works closely with the Planning Capacity and Capability Team in the Department for Levelling Up Homes and Communities (DLUHC) to support and upskill town planners in local government in building the skills and resources needed to deliver a more efficient and sustainable planning system, which can adapt to and successfully implement change. 

Job description

A key part of the programme is the newly forming Planning Super Squad (PSS) which aims to support Local Authorities by building capacity and enabling project delivery for large sites.  The PSS is a joint team between DLUHC and Homes England, leveraging our expertise, knowledge, and existing relationships with Local Authorities and places. Homes England are also responsible for managing the overall programme of activity. 

PSS will be responsive to the needs of individual large scale projects and undertake a wide range of bespoke tasks at all stages of the planning process. PSS will be made up of dedicated staff with extensive planning and development experience.  

 

We are recruiting a range of experienced specialists with extensive experience in the planning phase of development to help support the main team based in DLUHC and coordinate with our Homes England (HE) Regional teams. The roles will sit within the newly formed HE National Team in MPP Directorate. We are seeking professionals with large scale mixed use site planning and delivery experience including town planners, economic planners, regeneration specialists, infrastructure specialists (particularly strategic transport), viability and property experts.

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The team will work on all types of large scale development including new settlements, urban extensions and urban regeneration with a mixture of Investment Zones and hot spots for housing and regeneration delivery. The team will focus its combination of momentum, speed, capacity, quality and specialist technical support into local authority services. Whilst project delivery is the main focus of the team, it also has an important role, working with the PSS Core Team, in capturing and disseminating its learning and using this knowledge to assist the overall development of the planning system and support the delivery of the Homes England wider strategy. 

 

We particularly welcome candidates from an ethnic minority background and other underrepresented groups to apply, as we work to continually improve our ability to represent the places and communities, we support through our work.

 

A bit about the role …

Key internal relationships will be with colleagues in the Markets, Partners & Places Directorate and the Planning Super Squad team based in DLUHC. You will be reporting directly to the Senior Responsible Officer in Homes England and regularly liaising with the PSS Area Coordinators in DLUHC. 

 

This is an important HE national role and requires engagement with key individuals in the DLUHC operational teams in PSS and wider stakeholders in DfT, HMT, IPA and other government delivery agencies such as Network Rail and National Highways depending on project requirements. Relationships will also need to be built with development industry experts, construction innovators, developers, house builders, property agents and local partners in relation to site specific matters.

 

You will be a trusted key point of contact for the Planning Super Squad Operational Team in DLUHC and HE regional teams, responsible for coordination of advice on projects in one of our regions. You will be responsible for a small team of advisors and managing quality of outputs.

 

The Planning Super Squad operates across England, therefore the role will require regular travel for to sites and internal meetings.

 

Person specification

A bit about you….

Acting as part of the Squads leadership team, reporting to the Planning Super Squad Senior Responsible Officer, Abigaile Bromfield, in Homes England. You will be a trusted key point of contact for the Planning Super Squad Operational Team (based in DLUHC) and Homes England regional teams, therefore we are seeking strong leadership experience of managing multi-functional teams on complex development projects. 

You will hold a degree level qualification or equivalent experience and ideally a professionally relevant chartership, for example: Surveyor (MRICS), Town Planner (MRTPI), Transport Planner (CIHT), Engineer (MICE), Urban Economist.

Extensive experience of working on complex development property and/or infrastructure projects in the planning phase of development is an in essential requirement. You will also have an understanding of the factors that drive strategic development and planning, including experience of undertaking land assembly and/or delivery models (such as development corporations and joint ventures).

You will be experienced in supporting Green Book compliant business cases for major public investments for complex schemes. 

You will need to have strong interpersonal skills to build strong and lasting partnerships at a local level with a range of stakeholders, in particular with local authorities. 

You will be comfortable leading a problem solving approach, working on a wide range of PSS complex planning projects (and managing others to advise), adding insight through expert commercial, infrastructure, housing, regeneration and development knowledge; identify blockers and constraints and develop strategies to overcome them utilising the full range of Homes England and DLUHC skills and tools.

Benefits

Homes England is an executive non-departmental public body with its own terms and conditions, benefits and pension scheme. We are a government agency working in partnership with the private sector and want to employ and retain great people. In return we offer a range of excellent benefits.

Holiday - Homes England offers all staff 33 days annual leave per year in addition to 8 statutory bank holidays.

Working Flexibly - At Homes England we have a strong culture of flexible working and encourage all employees to have a healthy work/life balance. We offer a wide range of potential working patterns, including part time, job share and compressed hours.

These need to be balanced with business needs so they will vary from job to job. If you would like to know more please speak to the Recruiting Manager.

Health and Wellbeing - We offer health screening with Nuffield Proactive Health Clinics, a free Employee Assistance Programme which offers confidential support 24 hours a day, 7 days a week as well as access to Occupational Health.

Professional Development - At Homes England we are committed to your continued professional and personal development with learning as one of our core values. We pay for one job-related professional membership subscription per year for our employees.

We also offer an excellent range of family friendly benefits, for example, maternity, paternity, shared parental leave.

If anyone has any queries on any of these terms and conditions, please get in touch for further information.

Things you need to know

Selection process details

Interview Process.

Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.

Security

Successful candidates must undergo a criminal record check. People working with government assets must complete baseline personnel security standard (opens in new window) checks.

Nationality requirements

This job is broadly open to the following groups:

• UK nationals
• nationals of the Republic of Ireland
• nationals of Commonwealth countries who have the right to work in the UK
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities with settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS) (opens in a new window)
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities who have made a valid application for settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS)
• individuals with limited leave to remain or indefinite leave to remain who were eligible to apply for EUSS on or before 31 December 2020
• Turkish nationals, and certain family members of Turkish nationals, who have accrued the right to work in the Civil Service

Further information on nationality requirements (opens in a new window)

Working for the Civil Service

Please note this Post is NOT regulated by the Civil Service Commission. The Civil Service embraces diversity and promotes equal opportunities. As such, we run a Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) for candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria.