Assistant Planning & Enabling Manager

Birmingham, West Midlands (England), B1 2AX

Job Summary
As Assistant Planning and Enabling Manager you will play a critical role in supporting colleagues in the delivery of a portfolio of projects ranging from small to large, strategic and more complex sites in our Central Region. You will be working in a Birmingham based team with the Heads of Planning and Enabling and reporting to a Senior Planning and Enabling Manager. Your role will cover the key objectives of offering technical knowledge to de-risk sites and securing planning certainty to enable the supply of new homes on sites within Homes England’s land portfolio. The role may also include working on within multi-functional teams focusing on specific projects and initiatives.

You will be joining an enthusiastic, friendly and experienced team of 18 highly skilled professionals, who are committed to making positive change. You will support senior colleagues in the delivery of a varied range of projects using your technical and commercial skills to ensure that your projects are de-risked appropriately and taken to market in an agile way that maximises the potential for early delivery of development and ensures good value for money for the Agency.

Job Description
The successful candidate will support the design and delivery of key strategic projects across the West and East Midlands. There are some exciting and rewarding projects to get involved with and this is an excellent opportunity to balance day to day delivery whilst bringing innovative solutions to the Planning and Enabling offering. For example, this may include working with colleagues to draft planning, technical and de-risking strategies/ briefs to instruct consultants, preparing responses to Local Plan consultations and supporting the project management of consultants to prepare and submit planning applications. The ability to understand, technically appraise and inform a range of planning documents and matters, as well as engaging with Local Planning Authorities to, for example, agree content of planning applications and negotiate proportionate planning conditions and s106 Agreements is key to ensure effective deliverability and adhere to project programmes.

You will support colleagues involved in the acquisition of land and its onward disposal through the provision of technical support and planning strategy advice by carrying out technical due diligence and assessing planning potential/risks for sites that are being considered. You will also be required to contribute to preparing early drafts and shaping approval papers and planning strategies for land owned by the Agency or to be acquired directly through other Government Departments transfer model or partnering arrangements.

This is a rare chance to shape the future delivery of often complex but interesting brownfield and greenfield regeneration sites, predominantly in Central England in a fast growing, national organisation with real social purpose.

Person specification
Educated to degree level and appropriate professional membership (MRICS or MRTPI) being desirable or working towards, with early experience within the residential, commercial or regeneration development industries. You are passionate about working within the development industry and are developing your working knowledge of the development process, pre-acquisition, land transactions, de-risking, development economics and viability appraisals, as well as a sound understanding of the planning process and related policy and legislation.

You enjoy collaborating as part of a team and are enthusiastic about developing good project management skills and the ability to manage multiple projects and consultant teams simultaneously. A good/growing understanding of the marketplace and of the house building sector is essential for this position.

Delivering on a mission as bold as ours isn’t always easy. You will demonstrate communication skills including oral, digital, and written and be comfortable managing stakeholders and your discussions will always be shaped by a good understanding of the commercial and operational impact of what we do as a Planning and Enabling team. You will enjoy working in an innovative, fun and engaging way and will be able to negotiate and persuade.

You will be ambitious, striving to exceed targets and continually improve, and you will be able to demonstrate you can work with others as part of a team in a collaborative, inclusive way.

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, some of the key benefits include:

• 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.
• 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.

Selection process details
How to apply?
To apply please follow the links to our careers page.
Security
Successful candidates must pass a disclosure and barring security check.
Nationality Requirements
Open to UK, Commonwealth and European Economic Area (EEA) and certain non EEA nationals. Further information on whether you are able to apply is available here.
Working for the Civil Service
Please note this Post is NOT regulated by the Civil Service Commission.
Contact point for applicants
Name: Recruitment Team
Email: recruitmentinfo@homesengland.gov.uk

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