About the job

Job summary

DLUHC is responsible for some of the most high-profile issues across Government, including ensuring everyone has access to a safe, secure and affordable home; regenerating towns and high streets; and supporting local government to deliver vital services. 

The Housing, Markets & Strategy Directorate sits at the heart of DLUHC’s Regeneration Group, working with our housing, planning and regeneration directorates. The Directorate is responsible for some of the most high-profile issues across Government, including delivering the homes the country needs and supporting the housing sector through the current economic climate. It is a welcoming and supportive place to work – we pride ourselves on our strong networks, our focus on fostering talent and our outward-facing approach. 

The Housing Supply and Markets Division is a friendly division that works across Government and with ministers/SpAds in DLUHC to help ensure we deliver the homes the country needs. The division is responsible for the Government’s housing supply strategy, including the commitment to continue working towards delivering 300,000 homes a year in England, as well as wider work to ensure we have a diverse and competitive housebuilding market that works for everyone.

Job description

We are advertising for two roles across the division and candidates will be able to express a preference as part of the recruitment process.

Senior Policy Adviser – Housing Investments 

The Housing Investments Team sits at the heart of this work delivering financial support programmes to help SME developers and MMC innovators. With Homes England, the team are responsible for delivery of the recently launched £1.5bn Levelling Up Home Building Fund and its predecessor, the Home Building Short Term Fund. We also hold policy responsibility for championing the Build to Rent sector and overseeing the New Homes Bonus, our principal incentive to Local Authorities to drive housing delivery.

This is a stretching SEO role within a busy team and the successful candidate will be expected to lead on at least one of the specific workstreams, such as the Levelling Up Home Building Fund (an IPA major government project) or the New Homes Bonus. This work can range from operational oversight and challenge of our ongoing interventions to stakeholder management and policy development to ensure we have the right set of interventions to support our broader housing goals. 

Senior Policy Adviser – SME Team 

The SME Housebuilding Team is responsible for championing the sector and delivering interventions to support our vital SME housebuilders. The team works across the department and with Homes England to develop, design, and implement cross-cutting policy that will diversify the housebuilding sector. This work is essential to delivering our housebuilding targets, as SMEs play a critical role delivering the homes communities need. They help diversify the market, deliver the new homes our country needs, and often built out sites too small or niche for the volume developers to consider.

The post holder will have the opportunity to work in a busy team on cross-cutting policies to support SMEs, including finance, planning, land, and skills. It will require excellent stakeholder management skills, policy analysis skills, and creative thinking skills. This is a stretching role; the new senior policy advisor will have the opportunity to develop their leadership abilities and will be expected to take on different workstreams in line with ministerial priorities. The role has recently involved a lot of ministerial interest and briefing, so briefing experience would be welcomed.

Role/Responsibilities:

• Lead the delivery of at least one programme workstream, taking responsibility for programme management and working closer with our delivery partners, like Homes England, to ensure it is delivered on time, within budget and fulfils the project objectives.
• Develop strong sector knowledge to effectively advise Ministers and senior officials on institutional investment and SME housebuilding.
• Prepare high quality submissions and briefings at pace on a range of investment and operational delivery issues as required.
• Support the team's strategic approach to stakeholder engagement, taking a lead in managing the relationship with specific stakeholders and on key issues.
• Build strong working relationship with internal colleagues and other government departments.
• Work closely with Homes England to resolve operational issues and explore policy thinking.
• The successful candidates should be prepared to attend our London office on a monthly basis.

Person specification

Person specification and essential criteria:

• Excellent ability to get up to speed quickly on diverse policy areas
• Ability to work at pace amidst ambiguity
• Strong analytical skills, including ability to use data and evidence to understand what drives a problem and to develop solutions
• Resilience and calmness under pressure when dealing with changing priorities and fast-moving areas of work
• Excellent communication skills and ability to explain complex issues and options in a clear, succinct and evidenced way
• Ability to build and maintain strong relationships and confident working directly with a wide range of internal and external stakeholders
• Developing colleagues and contributing to a rewarding working environment

Desirable:

• Prior experience or knowledge of issues in housing, planning and regeneration policy
• Project delivery experience and qualifications (for instance, APM PMQ, Agile, Prince2)

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £38,732, Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities contributes £10,457 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.

Things you need to know

Selection process details

This vacancy is using Success Profiles (opens in a new window), and will assess your Behaviours, Strengths and Experience.

We are for everyone 

At DLUHC we value diversity and inclusion and actively encourage and welcome applications from everyone, including those that are underrepresented in our workforce. We promote equality of opportunity in all aspects of employment and a working environment free from discrimination, harassment, bullying and victimisation. 

Please contact the vacancy manager if you have any questions about the role.   

As part of our pre-employment checking process we will be using your CV to confirm your job history. Please note that by providing us with your CV you are consenting to us using the information enclosed as part of the checking process. 

We are for everyone 

DLUHC want to bring in a diverse workforce at all levels.  

Our application system is designed to remove as much bias as possible from the recruitment system – this means that a hiring manager does not know your name, your details, see your whole application in one go (or have your CV at review stage unless stated otherwise).  

At application stage you will be asked to upload a CV document. Unless stated otherwise in the advert, your CV will not form part of the assessment but will be used for information purposes and only shared with the panel at interview stage. 

Your answers are randomised and chunked up. This means that each assessor views sets of responses to questions for example all candidates’ responses to ‘Seeing the Big Picture’ rather than seeing a candidate’s full application. The science behind this is that recruitment can be subject to ordering and fatigue effects and we want to reduce this as much as possible.  

Most of our campaigns utilise multiple assessors and so it is possible that each of your answers would be viewed by different assessors. 

When writing your application, remember: 

• The assessor won’t be reading your answers sequentially.  
• Do not assume that the same assessors will have read all of your answers.  
• If talking about something in your first answer, make sure that you write the second answer as if you had not written the first (and so on!) 

At sift, we will be assessing 

Behaviour 1 (lead behaviour) - Making Effective Decisions

Behaviour 2 - Seeing The Big Picture

Behaviour 3 - Communicating and Influencing

Behaviour 3 - Delivering at Pace

Experience

There is a 250 word limit per question. 

In the event that we receive a large number of applications, we may conduct an initial sift using the lead behaviour listed in the advert. Candidates who pass the initial sift may be progressed to a full sift, or progressed straight to assessment/interview. 

 

The interview will be of a blended nature consisting of the following success profiles elements:    

Behaviour – Seeing The Big Picture, Making Effective Decisions, Communicating and Influencing, Delivering at Pace

Experience 

Strength 

The strength based questions will require natural responses from the candidates.  

In the full campaign we will test the below Success Profile Elements: 

Behaviours: Seeing The Big Picture, Making Effective Decisions, Communicating and Influencing, Delivering at Pace

Experience: Yes 

Strengths: Yes

We do not consider direct CV applications to our Recruitment mailbox – you must apply for this role via the application link on Civil Service Jobs 

Please note that near miss offers may be made at the lower grade to candidates who do not meet the grade criteria for this campaign. 

SEO salary 

• The salary for this role is £38,732 (National). 
• For existing civil servants, the usual policy on level transfer and promotion will apply and is non-negotiable. If you apply for a role that requires a transfer of location, for example if you are transferring from London to a National location, your salary will be adjusted in accordance with our policy on transfer between HQ pay ranges. 

 
Please note that the average employer pension contribution is based upon the National minimum salary for this role. Should your agreed starting salary for this role be different, the average employer pension contribution will be calculated accordingly. If you are a Secondee, this will not apply as you will remain on your home organisation’s terms and conditions.   

BENEFITS: 

Transfers across the Civil Service on or after 4 October 2018: 
Any move to DLUHC from another employer will mean you can no longer access childcare vouchers. This includes moves between government departments. You may however be eligible for other government schemes, including Tax-Free Childcare. Determine your eligibility at https://www.childcarechoices.gov.uk 

For further information about the benefits available to DLUHC employees, please see the attached Candidate Pack. 

  

GEOGRAPHICAL LOCATION: 

• Birmingham
• Bristol
• Manchester
• Leeds
• Wolverhampton 
• Darlington* 

There may be opportunities for candidates to work flexibly depending on the business needs. This will be discussed with the vacancy manager on a case-by-case basis if you are successful for the role. 

*Please note: The Darlington Economic Campus (DEC) is a pioneering new cross-government hub which will bring together people across departments and public organisations to play an active role in the most important economic issues of the day. The work of the Campus will make a real difference to people both across the UK and internationally. There will be substantial career opportunities and exciting prospects - a career at the Campus means you will be working at the heart of Government, with access to the benefits and fantastic opportunities offered by the civil service.  

For further information on the DEC, please take a look at the attached DEC candidate pack. 

SIFT AND INTERVIEW DATES: 

Sifting is envisaged to take place W/C 22/04/2024 with interview dates to be confirmed. All interviews are currently being held remotely via videocall. 

Reserve List 

 
In the event that we identify more appointable candidates than we currently have posts available, we will hold applicant details in a reserve list for a period of 6 months from which further appointments can be made. This may include roles at a lower grade. Candidates placed on a reserve list will be informed of this. Those candidates who do not wish to remain on the reserve list should contact recruitment@levellingup.gov.uk to be removed from the reserve list. 

 

CTC (Counter-terrorism Clearance): 

Important note 

 
Successful candidates for roles based in our 2 Marsham Street building must meet the security requirements before they can be appointed. The level of security needed is counter-terrorist check and the process can take up to 8 weeks to complete. 
 
Please note that successful candidates will need to pass the CTC security checks – this requires you to have been resident in the UK for the past 3 years. Please refer to the DLUHC Notes on Security Clearance section of our Candidate Pack for further information on Counter Terrorism Clearance (CTC). Thank you. 
 
Candidates should also note that with effect from 1st August 2018 the department will also check all applicants who are successful at interview, against the Internal Fraud Database (IFD) held by the Cabinet Office. In accordance with the Civil Service Internal Fraud Policy, any applicant who is included on the IFD will be refused employment by DLUHC. Please see the Candidate Pack for further information on the Internal Fraud Database. 

Candidate Pack Information 

Please see attached Candidate pack for further information. 

Before starting your application it’s very important to make sure that you are eligible to apply and meet the Civil Service nationality requirements. All candidates are expected to read the information provided in the DLUHC candidate pack regarding nationality requirements and rules 

Internal Fraud Database 

The Internal Fraud function of the Fraud, Error, Debt and Grants Function at the Cabinet Office processes details of civil servants who have been dismissed for committing internal fraud, or who would have been dismissed had they not resigned. The Cabinet Office receives the details from participating government organisations of civil servants who have been dismissed, or who would have been dismissed had they not resigned, for internal fraud. In instances such as this, civil servants are then banned for 5 years from further employment in the civil service. The Cabinet Office then processes this data and discloses a limited dataset back to DLUHC as a participating government organisations. DLUHC then carry out the pre employment checks so as to detect instances where known fraudsters are attempting to reapply for roles in the civil service. In this way, the policy is ensured and the repetition of internal fraud is prevented.  

For more information please see- Internal Fraud Register 

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

Security

Successful candidates must undergo a criminal record check. Successful candidates must meet the security requirements before they can be appointed. The level of security needed is counter-terrorist check (opens in a new window).

See our vetting charter (opens in a new window). 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

The Civil Service Code (opens in a new window) sets out the standards of behaviour expected of civil servants.

We recruit by merit on the basis of fair and open competition, as outlined in the Civil Service Commission's recruitment principles (opens in a new window). 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. The Civil Service also offers a Redeployment Interview Scheme to civil servants who are at risk of redundancy, and who meet the minimum requirements for the advertised vacancy.