Head of Development (Pre Contract)

Great Places Housing Group; Manchester; Hybrid; GBP 90,000 - 120,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Pension scheme (DC)

Health care scheme (WPA)

Flexible working

Annual leave 26–30 days

Rewards & recognition

Professional membership fees

Discounts & benefits

Wage access

Wellbeing campaigns

Job summary

Great Places Housing Group seeks a Head of Development (Pre Contract) to lead the Affordable Development programme and pre-contract team. You will drive new business opportunities, manage complex bids, and maintain rigorous governance across budgets and risks.

Reporting to the Director of Growth, you will align strategy with the Group’s Development Plan, oversee funding bids, and foster cross‑functional collaboration with the post-contract team to deliver high-quality schemes.

Qualifications

• 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.

Responsibilities

• Lead the pre-contract Affordable Development programme and pre-contract team performance.
• Develop funding bids in partnership with senior leadership.
• Provide clear leadership to inspire high performance and cross-organisational collaboration.
• Monitor team capacity, training needs and workloads with delegated accountability.
• Collaborate with the post-contract function to align team plans and learning.
• Drive strategy to generate new business and partnership opportunities.
• Manage stakeholder networks including Local Authorities, Homes England and private sector.
• Oversee feasibility studies, financial appraisals and risk management for schemes.
• Ensure procurement, value for money and social value objectives are met.
• Produce executive-facing reports for Directors, Growth Committee and Board.

Skills

Leadership

Programme management

Cashflow management

Stakeholder management

Housing development

Contract negotiation

Financial appraisal

Risk management

Team management

Reporting

Education

Degree level or equivalent

Job description

Reporting to the Director of Growth, the Head of Development (Pre Contract)’s key responsibility is to lead the pre-contract Affordable Development programme and leadership of the pre-contract team. This role covers the delivery of new business for affordable tenures, with a focus on accountability and leadership to enable delivery of growth targets in line with the Group’s Development Strategy.

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 Healthcare scheme 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.