Head of Development

Great Places Housing Group; Manchester; Hybrid; GBP 87,000 - 91,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Pension

Healthcare

Hybrid working

Annual leave

Rewards program

Professional fees

Discounts

Wage access

Wellbeing initiatives

Job summary

Great Places Housing Group is seeking a senior leader to drive affordable development strategy and secure funding with the Growth and Programmes teams. The role focuses on overseeing pre-contract development, risk and budgets, and delivering high‑quality proposals aligned with the organisation’s financial parameters.

You will lead cross‑functional teams, manage key partner relationships and steer strategic opportunities, ensuring value for money and social value in development contracts.

Qualifications

• Degree or equivalent with leadership ability.
• Minimum 8 years proven property development experience (affordable housing).
• Strong leadership, line management and mentoring.
• Programme, project, contract and cashflow management expertise.
• Proven relationship builder with stakeholders and partners.
• Experience managing multi-disciplinary development teams.
• Detailed knowledge of financial appraisal methods and feasibility assessments.
• Ability to manage risk, audit and Homes England requirements.
• Experience of managing development budgets.

Responsibilities

• Support the Director of Growth in delivering the Affordable Development Strategy.
• Jointly lead funding bids with the Director of Growth and the Director of Programmes and Business Development.
• Provide leadership to the team to drive high performance, accountability and cross-organisational collaboration.
• Monitor skills, capacity, training and workloads within the pre-contract team and ensure delegation.
• Maintain the departmental plan, training schedules and performance data; foster a learning environment.
• Lead strategy to generate and secure new business and partnerships for the team.
• Engage stakeholders and maintain relationships with Local Authorities, Homes England and private sector.
• Lead the development and delivery of the pre-contract development programme (target ~520 homes per year).
• Ensure robust data for investment decisions and apply risk mitigations.
• Oversee pre-contract stages of development projects ensuring viable, deliverable proposals.
• Prepare bids for strategic opportunities and larger regeneration schemes.
• Manage preferred partner status and panel memberships; ensure compliance with procedures.

Education

Degree in property development / related field

Job description

*Starting Salary £86,710 rising to Spot Salary £91,273 (At 2 years, subject to satisfactory performance)*

What you’ll be doing

• Supporting the Director of Growth in the delivery of the Great Places Affordable Development Strategy pursuant to the targets and objectives in the Business Plan;
• Jointly leading the preparation and development of funding bids in conjunction with the Director of Growth and the Director of Programmes and Business Development;
• Providing clear leadership in the team, inspiring a culture of high performance, responsibility, accountability, challenge, efficiency and cross- organisational working;
• Ensuring skills, capacity, training and workloads are monitored within the pre-contract team and ensure appropriate delegation is maintained;
• Working alongside the Head of Development (Post Contract) to maintain the department team plan, training schedules and performance data monitoring, with focus on a learning environment;
• Leading, managing and being accountable for an effective strategy for generating and securing new business and partnership opportunities for the team;
• Taking a lead on stakeholder management engaging the wider team on the importance of networks, communication and partnerships;
• Developing and maintaining key stakeholder relationships with Local Authorities, Homes England and the private sector;
• Leading the development, delivery and continuous improvement of the approved pre-contract development programme against agreed targets; typically targeting 520 homes to commence each financial year;
• Actively leading and managing development risk, ensuring that data upon which investment decisions are to be made is comprehensive and robust and that appropriate risk mitigations are applied;
• Leading the pre-contract stages of all development projects, supporting the team to deliver high quality proposals, that are strategically aligned, viable, deliverable and fit funding parameters;
• Leading and supporting the preparation of bids strategic opportunities, large scale regeneration opportunities, partnership opportunities, land, new schemes and wider opportunities with agreed timescales and financial parameters;
• Managing the organisation’s preferred partner status and memberships on various panels / strategic projects;
• Ensuring that feasibility studies and financial appraisals of schemes are undertaken in line with agreed finance and development procedures and the Group’s financial parameters and risk management framework;
• Ensuring that all pre-contract schemes are assessed and processed in accordance with internal procedures, standards and financial delegations, and are in line with the Group Probity and Procurement policies;
• Preparing and presenting reports for Executive Directors, Growth Committee and Board as required;
• Seeking to ensure efficiency and value for money is achieved in procurement, supply chain, specification and use of materials;
• Ensuring that Social Value objectives are pursued and included within development contracts procured by the pre-contract team;
• Managing pre-contract scheme and programme cashflows and budgets. Including setting, monitoring and controlling budgets in accordance with the business plan and standing orders;
• Applying robust, audit compliant procedures which support maintenance of Homes England Investment Partner and Strategic Partner status, legislative compliance and funders requirements. Including being the named process owner for designated processes relating to the pre-contract teams work, accountable for ensuring your processes are effectively designed, monitored and continuously improved in consultation with the relevant colleagues;
• Maintaining Health and Safety compliance in line with client duties under the CDM Regulations;
• Leading the pre-contract team to achieve audit compliant outcomes and ensure smooth transition of work to the post-contract team;
• Maintaining the team’s focus upon high quality design outcomes and specification for customers and end users;
• Researching and pursuing new initiatives and innovations to promote new business, better value for money, higher quality, service improvement, and enhanced customer experience.

What you’ll need

• Educated to degree level or equivalent or work experience demonstrating leadership ability;
• Minimum 8 years proven experience in a property development role with affordable housing expertise;
• Commitment to providing excellent leadership, line management and mentoring;
• Programme, project, contract and cashflow management expertise;
• Proven relationship builder and influencer with stakeholders. Ability to develop Great Places’ profile with a variety of partners and generate new business;
• Experience of partnership work, collaboration and the successful management of multi-disciplinary Development teams;
• Detailed understanding of financial appraisal assumptions, methodologies and feasibility assessments of development opportunities;
• Ability to manage risk, audit and Homes England requirements;
• Experience of managing financial budgets;
• Detailed knowledge of property development process including land acquisition, design, the construction process and procurement;
• Experience of negotiating complex legal contracts including land and construction;
• Knowledge of operating environment and changing market conditions;
• Ability to produce accurate and concise reports;
• Verbal and written communication skills.

What we need from you

• As a leader and line manager you will need to actively support your colleagues with their development and well-being, some experience of this is desirable but not essential as we offer full support to people transitioning into a management role;
• The ability to motivate, inspire and influence colleagues;
• The ability to develop and project a positive image of Great Places through personal, written and oral communication skills;
• An ability to recognise, develop and effectively promote new opportunities;
• A commitment to understand the challenges and opportunities that exist in the communities in which we work. We particularly value lived experience in social housing;
• A passion to advocate on behalf of people and communities;
• A commitment to work in partnership with others for the benefit of Great Places;
• A commitment to continuous learning and improvement;
• Ability to work flexibly when required.

What we give you in return for your hard work and commitment

• Pension | DC scheme (up to 10% contribution from both colleagues and Great Places)
• WPA | Healthcarescheme starts at no contribution level with £1,250 of savings available per year (option to increase & add family members)
• Ways of Working| We offer some hybrid and flexible working
• Annual leave |Start at 26 days annual leave, increasing up to 30 days within 5 years + Bank Holidays
• Reward & Recognition |You Count Rewards are individual reward’s for going ‘above & beyond’
• Professional fees | The business pays the cost of one professional role related membership fee
• The Market Place |High street, restaurant & supermarket discounts, gym memberships, cycle to work, smart tech loans and much more
• Wage Stream | You can access savings opportunities and early access to wages
• Health and Wellbeing Initiatives | Our colleagues enjoy wellbeing campaigns throughout the year, with activities designed around our four pillars of wellbeing, these include career wellbeing, mental wellbeing, physical wellbeing and financial wellbeing

At Great Places we believe the wellbeing of our colleagues is vital to enable them to deliver to great services, all your benefits can be used inside and outside of work.