Job Description
Developer Contributions - Principal Planner – 2 posts
PO4-PO6 £47,432 - £55,620 per annum
About Us
The Planning & Development service is shaping the places our residents and businesses use every day. We do this by working with and holding developers or land owners to the high standards in our bold Local Plan and the London Plan.
The newly established Development Delivery team is building on the aspirations of our residents and members. We want to ensure our residents can benefit from genuinely affordable homes, have access to beautiful and truly accessible public spaces, can secure the new jobs being created in a range of industries, and have access to social infrastructure for everyone to thrive. Our strategic sites will create new communities that must truly connect with their neighbours.
The Development Delivery team want to forge more productive relationships with stakeholders to help with the delivery of development alongside adequate infrastructure. Our borough is growing and so is our team.
About the Job
Our ambition as a team is to align infrastructure delivery and council services to the growth and development across the borough.
The development industry is active in Newham so this is a busy part of the service with commitment and enthusiasm to enable high quality development. We are looking for a colleague at a senior level to robustly scrutinise submissions and applications made to us. Your application must demonstrate the experience you have to perform the tasks and accountabilities at grade PO6.
In relation to financial matters, the team collects, allocates and reconciles income; the team also assesses and acts as gatekeepers of the governance process to release monies for expenditure. Quarterly reporting to TfL and the council’s capital and assets oversight board is required and annual statutory reporting is supported by a report to members of the strategic development committee.
This role will require collaboration with the wider team – sharing your knowledge and experience to enhance all team member’s approaches, but you will maintain a range of developments and casework commensurate with this grade – i.e., the most complicated developments making transformational changes in east London. These challenges will be fun and you will maintain professional working relationships with developers, agents, architects and other professional stakeholders all with a common goal to deliver development in Newham.
In the short-term, we will be collaborating with our colleagues at the London Legacy Development Corporation (LLDC) to continue their good work with developers in and around the Olympic Park; maintaining and enhancing the working relationships we have with developers across the borough and meaningfully engaging with our colleagues across the council to facilitate positive planning outcomes to benefit our residents.
For Planning Obligations
This is an important role in the developer contributions (S106) team, you will be one of six officers dealing with planning obligations work reporting to a team leader.
We will be working hard to improve the way we work, enhance transparency and find new ways to engage with residents and businesses on the social value that development is bringing to the borough; we’re on the verge of making transformational change to how we do things and would value the experience new appointments would bring from other work settings.
Operationally, the team is responsible for the financial and non-financial matters associated with compliance with deeds of planning obligation. This involves casework for assessing and making judgments of submissions on a range of planning related themes from sustainable and active transport, socio-economic development, public transport, financial viability, affordable housing and other matters.
For CIL
You will report to a team leader alongside five other colleagues – together you are the developer contributions (CIL) team.
We are building and maintaining a reputation for robustly scrutinising the CIL regulations and holding the development industry to the highest standards; whilst also supporting developers with getting on site by promptly processing claims for relief and exemptions; and we like to innovate with an internal culture of co-designing service improvements.
This team is primarily responsible for the collection of and accounting for monies – the developments in Newham span super-major developments phased to deliver over 15-20 years and schemes which gain consent and want to be on site within weeks or days of planning permission. This post will help to streamline our processes and work with some of our more technically challenging casework; including collaborating with planning policy, development management, infrastructure planning, resident engagement and other colleagues to help facilitate development.
About You You are a passionate and informed advocate for the council in relation to this area of expertise as an MRTPI or MRICS planner or working towards membership of these institutions. You will be keen to learn and develop; including by mentoring other members of the team. You will be confident in your own abilities but not afraid to be honest if something does not go to plan. You will be confident in preparing and presenting reports on complex matters to a range of audiences to clearly inform, influence or engage on planning obligations, planning policy and site specific considerations. You have a deep and thorough understanding of statute, case law and appeal decisions that you can apply to your advice to stakeholders, in your delegated reports and to shape our ways of working. You will have experience of or feel comfortable in representing complex planning obligations and/or CIL matters in conversations with residents, members, senior leaders, developers, land owners, and infrastructure providers. You will be financially astute and have a keen eye for detail to safeguard income and expenditure of public funding in line with the internal controls you and the team will update and enforce. As a non-negotiable, you will be committed to the achievement of equality, diversity and inclusion in both employment and service delivery. Closing date 17/02/25 Interviews to be held: 6th March 2025 Additional Information
To complete a successful application please carefully review the person specification and ensure you offer examples of your work experience. Should you require any help or advice with your online application, please contact the Recruitment Help Desk on: 0203 373 0909. Should you wish to have a confidential conversation about this job you may contact the Hiring Manager Jennifer Bishop on 02033731168 or Jennifer.Bishop@newham.gov.uk. The council is committed to the development of colleagues. During the course of your employment, subject to you meeting entry requirements and based on the exigencies of the service, the Development Delivery team will support the progression of an apprenticeship achieving a chartered town planning standard at level 7 or an alternative leadership apprenticeship. Commitment to Inclusion We are committed to creating an inclusive, anti-racist environment for all. When you apply for a job at Newham, your application is considered on its merits regardless of your age, disability, ethnicity, faith, gender identity or sexual orientation. If you share our vision and values, and you bring the experience and skills we need, that’s all that matters to us. The London Borough of Newham has important responsibilities for safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, young people and vulnerable adults. If you are appointed to a job that involves working with these groups, you may be subject to a Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check. Application Process Please attach your supporting statement, explaining in no more than x3 A4 sides why and how you meet the criteria for this role. We practice anonymised recruitment. Please ensure that you remove all personal information from any documents that you upload.
The personal information we have collected from you will be shared with Cifas who will use it to prevent fraud, other unlawful or dishonest conduct, malpractice, and other seriously improper conduct. If any of these are detected you could be refused certain services or employment. Your personal information will also be used to verify your identity. Further details of how your information will be used by us and Cifas, and your data protection rights, can be found by https://www.cifas.org.uk/fpn.
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About You You are a passionate and informed advocate for the council in relation to this area of expertise as an MRTPI or MRICS planner or working towards membership of these institutions. You will be keen to learn and develop; including by mentoring other members of the team. You will be confident in your own abilities but not afraid to be honest if something does not go to plan. You will be confident in preparing and presenting reports on complex matters to a range of audiences to clearly inform, influence or engage on planning obligations, planning policy and site specific considerations. You have a deep and thorough understanding of statute, case law and appeal decisions that you can apply to your advice to stakeholders, in your delegated reports and to shape our ways of working. You will have experience of or feel comfortable in representing complex planning obligations and/or CIL matters in conversations with residents, members, senior leaders, developers, land owners, and infrastructure providers. You will be financially astute and have a keen eye for detail to safeguard income and expenditure of public funding in line with the internal controls you and the team will update and enforce. As a non-negotiable, you will be committed to the achievement of equality, diversity and inclusion in both employment and service delivery. Closing date 17/02/25 Interviews to be held: 6th March 2025 Additional Information
To complete a successful application please carefully review the person specification and ensure you offer examples of your work experience. Should you require any help or advice with your online application, please contact the Recruitment Help Desk on: 0203 373 0909. Should you wish to have a confidential conversation about this job you may contact the Hiring Manager Jennifer Bishop on 02033731168 or Jennifer.Bishop@newham.gov.uk. The council is committed to the development of colleagues. During the course of your employment, subject to you meeting entry requirements and based on the exigencies of the service, the Development Delivery team will support the progression of an apprenticeship achieving a chartered town planning standard at level 7 or an alternative leadership apprenticeship. Commitment to Inclusion We are committed to creating an inclusive, anti-racist environment for all. When you apply for a job at Newham, your application is considered on its merits regardless of your age, disability, ethnicity, faith, gender identity or sexual orientation. If you share our vision and values, and you bring the experience and skills we need, that’s all that matters to us. The London Borough of Newham has important responsibilities for safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, young people and vulnerable adults. If you are appointed to a job that involves working with these groups, you may be subject to a Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check. Application Process Please attach your supporting statement, explaining in no more than x3 A4 sides why and how you meet the criteria for this role. We practice anonymised recruitment. Please ensure that you remove all personal information from any documents that you upload.
The personal information we have collected from you will be shared with Cifas who will use it to prevent fraud, other unlawful or dishonest conduct, malpractice, and other seriously improper conduct. If any of these are detected you could be refused certain services or employment. Your personal information will also be used to verify your identity. Further details of how your information will be used by us and Cifas, and your data protection rights, can be found by https://www.cifas.org.uk/fpn.
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