About the job

Job summary

The Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities holds some key policy leavers for tackling climate change in buildings, especially relating to construction and subsequent building work, through the building regulations, and to energy performance policy for all buildings, for instance by requiring and monitoring the use of Energy Performance Certificates (EPCs).  These policies have been at the forefront of energy efficiency improvements and carbon reductions in buildings for many years.  
The role will be high profile and influential in shaping policy through developing a high quality evidence base, and involve engagement with senior officials, Ministers and other government departments.  

The postholder will be based in the Safer and Greener Buildings Analysis (SGBA) Division, part of DLUHC’s Analysis and Data Directorate. SGBA provides data and analysis to support the Safer and Greener Buildings group in delivering its mission to make buildings safer and shape policy development concerning climate change across government.  

You will be part of a climate change analysis team which leads on the evidence base for new homes Future Homes Standard, new non-domestic buildings, the Future Buildings Standard, ongoing development of EPC requirement's and Embodied Carbon.  The team also leads on development of evidence to support the Department’s wider net zero and adaptation agenda. The remit of the team is currently under review and is likely to be expanded to include work on the building regulations and building safety.

As with most analysts in DLUHC, SGBA are based within the Analysis and Data Directorate. The Directorate is made up of a number of multi-disciplinary teams responsible for delivering evidence across the range of core Departmental priorities, for example on levelling Up, housing, planning, local government finance and local economic growth. Our work is always in high demand, including from senior officials, ministers, and their special advisers, both here and in other government departments (most notably Number 10, HM Treasury and the Cabinet Office) and are highly influential in shaping and designing policy. 
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.

Job description

This role will be part of a small, high profile climate change analysis team within the Analysis and Data Directorate, alongside two other G7 economic advisors primarily focused on providing economic analysis to support the Department’s Net Zero and Net Zero agenda.  

Key responsibilities of the team include:

•    Leading and managing analysis of building regulations policies for new homes, new non-domestic buildings and existing buildings requiring building work.  
o    This includes providing economic analysis to inform policy options and develop the impact assessments for the Future Homes Standard and Future Buildings Standard.   
    
•    Leading on analysis for reform of the EPC system.
o    This includes improving the quality of and requirements for producing EPCs and any related analysis, for instance on use of Display Energy Certificates.   
    
•    Work on analysis to inform DLUHC policy options for measuring embodied carbon in buildings.
o    This includes evidence on the robustness of data, resource efficiency and overlaps with related policies such as industrial decarbonisation, emissions trading and products declaration requirements.   
    
•    Work to understand the climate change impact of DLUHCs wider agenda to identify mitigation and adaptation priorities.  
o    This includes supporting future analysis of carbon impacts across policy areas, such as spending review bids, major projects, and local initiatives, in order to assess and monitor the potential for reducing emissions.   
    
•    Utilising existing and developing new sources of data to inform monitoring and evaluation of key existing DLUHC policies.
o     This could include using EPC, English Housing Survey and other sources, working with academics to develop an evidence base of impacts across the building stock.   
    
•    Analysis to inform wider policy development for the Safety and Greener Buildings group. 
o    This could include aspects of adaptation to climate change, building safety and other related parts of the building regulations as appropriate . It could also involve collaborating with researchers, academics and others to develop robust evidence. 

Key priorities will be analysis of the building regulations policy for homes and for non-domestic buildings, especially improving the robustness of the final impact assessment for the Future Homes Standards and the Future Buildings Standard.
This will involve collaborating closely with policy, technical colleagues and specialist consultants. It will also involve working with colleagues across Whitehall, especially in the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero on overlaps with other policies.  

The postholder would also be expected to work on other key responsibilities of the team as outlined above.  

The post holder will need to become familiar with the recently introduced Better Regulations framework and  the requirements of the Regulatory Policy Committee, including in relation to ongoing monitoring and evaluation as final impact assessments will need RPC approval. 

The post would involve line managing an Assistant Economist and being an active member of the G7 Leadership Group of the team.   

Person specification

Key Skills/Criteria: ·        Ability and experience  of line management and being part of the G7 leadership for well-motivated team, including developing and improving the team’ skills and competencies; ·        Experience of working in economic appraisal in which strong analytical skills have been clearly demonstrated; ·        The ability to work closely with senior officials and ministers on high-profile topics and to explain complex analysis in a clear and coherent way; ·        Experience of delivering to tight and multiple deadlines with robust project management and under pressure, whilst ensuring the quality of your and your team’s work; ·        Experience of taking an evidenced based approach to inform decisions and recommendations; and ·        This role is available for badged members of the GES only ·        The skills and competencies expected of a professional economist as set out in the Government Economics Service technical framework.   Competencies  You will need to address the technical competences for your profession in the application and at interview.  Professional technical competences are listed below:  Economic competences  Economics: Application of knowledge  Economics: Analysis of data  Economics: Effective communication

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £51,934, Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities contributes £14,022 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

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. 

We would strongly recommend that applicants get in touch with the vacancy manager to find out more information about this role.  

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 

Technical (Lead element) - Please can you give an example of when you have demonstrated economics professional competencies as defined by the GES technical framework. Your example should include evidence of:                                                 

• application of knowledge
• analysis of data
• effective communication

Behaviour 1 - Delivering at pace

Behaviour 2 - Making effective decisions

There is a 250 word limit per question. 

 

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

Behaviour – Making effective decisions, Delivering at pace

Technical - Technical questions will be based on the economic competences as listed in the advert.

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

Candidates invited to interview will be expected to complete an oral briefing exercise as part of the interview process.  The oral-briefing exercise is designed to simulate aspects of the job to be performed and provide a second basis for assessing the behaviours and competencies required in the job. 

The oral briefing is usually part of the professional requirements as government analytical professions require an oral briefing as part of the entry or promotion process.  The briefing will take one of the following forms: 

1.  A prepared on the day presentation to the interview panel which will be followed by questions from the panel.  You will be provided with all the information to use for your presentation on the day of your interview.  You will be given up to 45 minutes to read this information and prepare your presentation. 

OR 

1.  You will be provided with a question in advance of the interview and asked to prepare a presentation of a specific length addressing this question.  This presentation will be followed by questions from the panel. 

Candidates invited to interview will be given full instructions on the presentation being used. 

The presentation will be followed by a 45 minute competency based interview. 

 

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

Behaviours: Making effective decisions, Delivering at pace

Technical: 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. 

Grade 7 salary 

• The salary for this role is £51,934 (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. 
• In addition, subject to membership of the appropriate professional body, a non-consolidated analysts allowance of £3,500 pa will be paid.

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: 

• Wolverhampton 
• Birmingham 
• Leeds
• Bristol
• 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 from 12/02/24 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 n 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. 

 

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. 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.