Planning Consultant

TerraQuest Solutions Ltd; Birmingham; Hybrid; GBP 35,000 - 55,000; Full time

Job summary

An established industry player is seeking a Planning Consultant to join their dynamic team in Birmingham. This role involves providing expert planning advice, preparing detailed reports, and ensuring compliance with local planning policies. The ideal candidate will possess a relevant degree and demonstrate strong communication skills, time management, and the ability to work under pressure. With a commitment to employee well-being and development, this innovative firm offers a flexible working environment and a comprehensive benefits package, making it a great place to grow your career in planning.

Benefits

Pension

Life Assurance

Employee Assistance Programme

Flexible working options

Training and development opportunities

Option to buy additional annual leave

Qualifications

• Relevant degree in planning or equivalent certification required.
• Strong communication and negotiation skills essential.

Responsibilities

• Provide online planning advice and guidance on various matters.
• Prepare customer meeting summaries and planning consultancy reports.
• Complete planning application reports and ensure KPI targets are met.

Skills

Excellent oral communication

Time management

Negotiation skills

Planning application knowledge

Analytical skills

Education

BA degree or equivalent RTPI Certified Planning Course

Job description

TerraQuest

Role: Planning Consultant

Location: Birmingham in line with our Agile Working Policy where you will be able to work from our state-of-the-art Central Birmingham office to be attended as often as business needs required, but a minimum of 1 day per month.

Salary: Competitive

Who we are...

TerraQuest Solutions Ltd is an award-winning and market-leading specialist provider of planning, land, property, and business solutions. We are an established and trusted organisation that is renowned for its expertise in providing innovative and cost-effective solutions to both public and private sectors. Our team delivers bespoke, flexible, and efficient services through a process-orientated delivery structure. We pride ourselves on strong customer relationships evidenced by the high proportion of referrals and repeat business.

Why work with us…

We are a Living Wage Foundation accredited employer, committed to supporting the well-being and development of all our people. With competitive salaries, enhanced Family Friendly policies; a fabulous suite of benefits (including: Pension; Life Assurance; Employee Assistance Programme; option to buy additional annual leave in addition to 25 days plus Bank Holidays); true flexibility with our Agile Working approach, and superb training and development opportunities, we really care about our team!

What we need...

Due to an exciting period of sustained growth in our products and services, we are looking to recruit a Planning Consultant to join our expanding Professional Services team delivering a unique set of specialist planning services to planning professionals, developers, local planning authorities, applicants and the public.

The Planning Consultant will have direct responsibility for providing expert advice, guidance and making informed assessments and recommendations to a range of customers, including users of TerraQuest’s national Planning Portal.

What you will be doing…

• Providing on-line/remote planning advice and guidance on general and specific planning matters.
• Where required, to prepare for customer meetings by accessing local planning policy and history documents from the Local Planning Authority website, in context of the written request received.
• Where required, to provide a brief written summary of the meeting and, once quality assured, submit to the applicant.
• Where required, following the scheme specific pre-application consultation meeting, provide a detailed written Planning Consultancy report to include reference to planning policy, planning history, planning constraints, general advice and recommendations.
• Completion of delegated and committee planning application reports in accordance with the company’s agreed Key Performance Indicators, including Household Residential Extensions, Lawful Development Certificates, Prior Notifications, Advertisement Consents and Changes of Use.
• Effective communication and negotiation with applicants and agents with regards to planning applications, planning queries and post-refusal advice.
• Using back-office systems to update applications, compile reports and record details of site visits and the evaluation process
• Updating customer enquiry database in accordance with key performance indicators
• Attending and reporting into monthly team meetings and weekly one to one case conferences
• To follow instructions as stated by Planning Services Manager and meet all daily, weekly and monthly KPI targets
• Ensuring a right first-time approach by maintaining high productivity, efficiency and effectiveness
• To meet all daily production targets and update project documentation including Daily Production and Quality Logs.
• To undertake any other tasks and duties within the scope and grade of the post.

What we are looking for…

Qualities and Skills Required

Essential

The ideal candidate will hold a relevant BA degree or equivalent RTPI Certified Planning Course. Utilising excellent oral communication skills, they must be confident in dispensing advice and guidance to a range of professionals, customers and members of the public, and where necessary, dealing with difficult customers and achieving positive outcomes. To complete planning applications and planning reports to strict deadlines, the right individual must be able to demonstrate strong time management, an ability to work under pressure, and be able to plan the day’s workload from the outset making appropriate adjustments when required within a production team environment. A focus on accuracy, productivity, efficiency, and effectiveness is essential.

The role will require liaising with both external and internal parties, negotiating with applicants and agents and communicating effectively with other members of the team. Therefore, they will be required to demonstrate possessing excellent oral and written communication skills.

The candidate will be required to quickly develop the skills to analyse plans and assess their acceptability against local, regional and national planning policy with the ability to communicate assessments and recommendation in clear, concise and accurate planning reports.

Desirable

You will also ideally have at least 6 months experience of the planning applications subject area and experience working within Planning Authority/Private Sector.