6330 - Principal Officer – Landscape Casework

Natural England; United Kingdom; On-site; GBP 40,000 - 60,000; Full time

Job summary

An environmental advisory organization is seeking a professional to enhance the planning and delivery of major infrastructure projects. This role involves providing expert technical advice on environmental impacts, especially to Protected Landscapes, and managing high-risk planning cases. The candidate will collaborate with various teams to ensure effective environmental outcomes and engage with stakeholders throughout the planning processes. A degree in environmental planning or a related field is required, along with solid analytical and judgement skills.

Qualifications

• Experience with Protected Landscapes and environmental impact assessments.
• Understanding major planning infrastructure developments.
• Ability to engage with multiple stakeholders effectively.

Responsibilities

• Provide technical advice on impacts to Protected Landscapes.
• Engage with Area Teams on High Risk cases.
• Manage and assure quality of landscape specialist advice.

Skills

Technical analysis of impacts

Expert judgement on landscape cases

Quality assurance

Stakeholder engagement

Education

Degree in environmental planning or related fields

Job description

Join us in shaping a future where nature and people thrive. Whether you're drawn to hands-on conservation or playing a vital part behind the scenes, your work at Natural England will support lasting benefits for the environment and society.

Our Role

Natural England is the Government’s adviser for the natural environment and the Nature regulator with a wide range of statutory duties and powers. We provide the evidence, expertise and advice to recover Nature and shape better places for people to live. We do this working through and with others.

Our Priorities

• Drive Nature recovery at a greater scale and faster pace than before by supporting large scale projects and making it easier for landowners to get permissions for Nature positive change.
• Tackle the root causes of Nature’s decline working with Defra partners to ensure cleaner air, clean and plentiful water, healthier soils and rich, productive seas.
• Partner with planners and developers on “high nature; low carbon” houses, energy and transport infrastructure and introduce strategic solutions so development can also protect and restore Nature.
• Support food security and sustainable farming, forestry and fishing through targeted advice and the right mix of public and private finance.
• Shape better places for people to work and live by providing clear evidence and advice to our partners, using spatial plans for Nature as a framework for investment and joined up action.
• Connect communities with Nature and create Nature close to people’s homes, ensuring everyone gains from the health benefits Nature can bring.

Find out more about the work of Natural England at www.gov.uk/government/organisations/natural-england.

Job description

The Role

Natural England has a key role to play in the planning and delivery of major infrastructure. We provide advice to planners and developers on “high nature; low carbon” houses, energy and transport infrastructure, and we introduce strategic solutions so development can also protect and restore Nature.

The Major Planning Casework Team is a multi‑disciplinary team which works with Area and National teams on complex major developments on land and sea. The team provides advice to maximise environmental outcomes and manage risk from these developments. We work in two ways; we lead Natural England’s inputs to some major planning casework, and we support our Area Teams on major planning casework by providing technical advice and project management expertise.

Our team’s major casework activity uses cost recovery mechanisms to bring in income. Our team helps to set up contracts with applicants using Natural England’s Discretionary Advice Service, NSIP statutory charging and Service Level Agreements (SLAs).

Key Tasks/Principal Accountabilities

• Providing specialist technical advice on impacts to Protected Landscapes from development. This will include providing your expert analysis on developer led LVIA/SLVIAs to inform NE advice and advising developers on their impact assessments directly.
• Providing national oversight of all High Risk High Opportunity cases with potential to harm Protected Landscapes, and proactively engage with Area Teams on the support required.
• Ensuring Natural England’s High Risk High Opportunity pipeline of cases records all the cases it needs to via engagement with Area Teams and the Landscape Planning Network.
• Using your expert judgement, prioritise your engagement on the cases with most risk to Protected Landscapes.
• Managing and Quality Assuring landscape specialist advice commissioned via our planning framework contract.
• Being an expert witness for Natural England at NSIP examinations, Local Plan examinations and Public Inquiries for the highest priority cases, ensuring effective delivery and justification of our advice and positions, and ensuring site visits have informed your advice and judgement.
• Providing effective escalation of landscape planning matters throughout NE’s Sustainable Development work, working with Area Teams and other technical colleagues to identify lessons learnt and opportunities for reforming and improving our approach to landscape casework.
• Understanding Natural England’s role in advising on seascape issues, and triage which cases require this support, providing advice on seascape issues where needed.
• Working across directorates to ensure connectivity with the landscape expertise elsewhere in the organisation.
• Enabling effective partnership working on casework – driving forward our engagement with landscape partnerships and other key stakeholders - working together on the most complex cases.