If you experience technical issues during the application process we have found using a different browser or device in the first instance can be a quick fix.

If those don't work please email the Resourcing Hub at recruitment@levellingup.gov.uk with your application and/or CV before the submission deadline. Any applications received after the deadline may not be considered.

Job summary

DLUHC is responsible for some of the most high-profile issues across Government, including ensuring everyone has access to a safe, secure and affordable home; regenerating towns and high streets; and supporting local government to deliver vital services.   

The Housing, Markets & Strategy Directorate sits at the heart of DLUHC’s Regeneration Group, working with our housing, planning and regeneration directorates. The Directorate is responsible for some of the most high-profile issues across Government, including delivering the homes the country needs and supporting the housing sector through the current economic climate. It is a welcoming and supportive place to work – we pride ourselves on our strong networks, our focus on fostering talent and our outward-facing approach.  

Housing Strategy Division 

The Housing Strategy Division is responsible for designing Government’s overall housing strategy, working with No10, HMT and Ministers/SpAds in DLUHC to ensure we deliver the homes we need in the places we want to live in at prices we can afford, so that all of us are free to live where we can connect our talents with opportunity.  

The division is responsible for working across the department to ensure all our interventions – whether on housing supply, planning, or capital funds – are working together to deliver this objective. We clarify departmental priorities in this policy space and support their effective delivery, including through leading on fiscal events for the group and running in-depth strategic projects to understand the political, economic and social context that drives our policies.  

Job description

We are creating a new Regeneration Priorities Unit that can support our wider Group to be more responsive to changing priorities and urgent concerns across housing, planning and regeneration policy. It will bolster teams’ capacity across the Group to undertake urgent policy work in line with Ministerial and parliamentary interest.  It is a high-impact, fast-paced and rewarding role where you will play a key role in supporting Ministers’ objectives and solving high-profile problems. This will include:  

• Leading policy work to respond to emerging issues, events and new priorities in the context of DLUHC’s housing, planning and regeneration objectives.  

• Getting to grips with new subjects or policy areas rapidly, including where the facts are still unknown or where the ‘ask’ is unclear  

• Working collaboratively within policy teams to understand emerging problems and undertake urgent work in response 

• Building and maintaining strong working relationships with colleagues across Regeneration teams and the wider department, including analysts, lawyers and other functional leads  

• Gathering and analysing data, evidence and stakeholder insight to understand challenges faced and what’s driving them, and the barriers to achieving Ministers’ objectives 

• Supporting Ministers and senior officials by providing high-quality, confident and strategic advice and briefings, in writing or in person 

• Developing other members of the Unit and upskilling colleagues by sharing your skills and experience, to improve how the team works 

Person specification

• Excellent ability to get up to speed quickly on policy areas and comfort in being a challenging voice with teams across the department. 

• Ability to work at pace amidst ambiguity, turning complex, unclear asks into tangible actions that can be delivered 

• Strong analytical skills, including ability to use data and evidence to understand what drives a problem and to develop solutions  

• Resilience and calmness under pressure when dealing with changing priorities and fast-moving areas of work 

• Excellent communication skills and ability to articulate complex issues and options in a clear, succinct and evidenced way, tailoring communication style to the needs of the audience  

• Ability to build and maintain strong relationships and confident working directly with a wide range of internal and external stakeholders   

• Experience of leading and motivating people  

• Developing people and teams, and contributing to a rewarding working environment. 

Desirable:  

• Prior experience or knowledge of issues in housing, planning and regeneration policy  

Behaviours

We'll assess you against these behaviours during the selection process:

• Making Effective Decisions

• Leadership

• Delivering at Pace

Benefits

• Learning and development tailored to your role

• An environment with flexible working options

• A culture encouraging inclusion and diversity

• A Civil Service pension with an average employer contribution of 27%

Things you need to know

Selection process details

This vacancy is using Success Profiles (opens in a new window), and will assess your Behaviours, Strengths and Ability.

We are for everyone 

At DLUHC we value diversity and inclusion and actively encourage and welcome applications from everyone, including those that are underrepresented in our workforce. We promote equality of opportunity in all aspects of employment and a working environment free from discrimination, harassment, bullying and victimisation. 

We would strongly recommend that applicants get in touch with the vacancy manager to find out more information about this role.  

We are for everyone 

DLUHC want to bring in a diverse workforce at all levels.  

Our application system is designed to remove as much bias as possible from the recruitment system – this means that a hiring manager does not know your name, your details, see your whole application in one go (or have your CV at review stage unless stated otherwise).  

Your answers are randomised and chunked up. This means that each assessor views sets of responses to questions for example all candidates’ responses to ‘Seeing the Big Picture’ rather than seeing a candidate’s full application. The science behind this is that recruitment can be subject to ordering and fatigue effects and we want to reduce this as much as possible.  

Most of our campaigns utilise multiple assessors and so it is possible that each of your answers would be viewed by different assessors. 

When writing your application, remember: 

• The assessor won’t be reading your answers sequentially.  

• Do not assume that the same assessors will have read all of your answers.  

• If talking about something in your first answer, make sure that you write the second answer as if you had not written the first (and so on!) 

At sift, we will be assessing 

Behaviour 1 (lead behaviour) - Making effective decisions

Behaviour 2 - Leadership

Behaviour 3 - Delivering at pace

There is a 250 word limit per question. 

In the event that we receive a large number of applications, we may conduct an initial sift using the lead behaviour listed in the advert. Candidates who pass the initial sift may be progressed to a full sift, or progressed straight to assessment/interview  

The interview will be of a blended nature consisting of behaviour, ability, and strength based questions as listed in the advert. The strength based questions will require natural responses from the candidates. Candidates will be expected to prepare a presentation, details of which will be sent on invitation to interview. 

In full the campaign will test the below Success Profile Elements: 

Behaviours: Making effective decisions, Leadership, Delivering at pace

Ability: Through the presentation at interview.

Strengths: Yes 

We do not consider direct CV applications to our Recruitment mailbox – you must apply for this role via the application link on Civil Service Jobs 

Please note that near miss offers may be made at the lower grade to candidates who do not meet the grade criteria for this campaign. 

Grade 7 salary 

• The salary for this role is £54,632 (London) or £49,697 (National). 

• For existing civil servants, the usual policy on level transfer and promotion will apply and is non-negotiable. 

BENEFITS: 

Transfers across the Civil Service on or after 4 October 2018: 
Any move to DLUHC from another employer will mean you can no longer access childcare vouchers. This includes moves between government departments. You may however be eligible for other government schemes, including Tax-Free Childcare. Determine your eligibility at https://www.childcarechoices.gov.uk 

For further information about the benefits available to DLUHC employees, please see the attached Candidate Pack. 

GEOGRAPHICAL LOCATION: 

• London 

• Wolverhampton 

• Darlington* 

There may be opportunities for candidates to work flexibly depending on the business needs. This will be discussed with the vacancy manager on a case-by-case basis if you are successful for the role. 

*Please note: The Darlington Economic Campus (DEC) is a pioneering new cross-government hub which will bring together people across departments and public organisations to play an active role in the most important economic issues of the day. The work of the Campus will make a real difference to people both across the UK and internationally. There will be substantial career opportunities and exciting prospects - a career at the Campus means you will be working at the heart of Government, with access to the benefits and fantastic opportunities offered by the civil service. This role is based at DLUHC and we will be joined on the campus by: 

• HM Treasury  

• Department for International Trade 

• Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy  

• Office for National Statistics

• Department for Education

For further information on the DEC, please take a look at the attached DEC candidate pack. 

SIFT AND INTERVIEW DATES: 

Sifting is envisaged to take place from 16/03/2023 with interview dates to be confirmed. All interviews are currently being held remotely via videocall. 

RESERVE LIST: 
 
In the event that we identify more appointable candidates than we currently have posts available, we will hold applicant details on a reserve list for a period of 6 months from which further appointments can be made. This may include roles at a lower grade. Candidates placed on a reserve list will be informed of this. Due to the length of time CTC checks can take, our HR Shared Services team will contact reserve list candidates for London based roles to commence CTC checks. Those candidates who do not wish to remain on the reserve list should contact recruitment@levellingup.gov.uk to be removed from the reserve list. 

CTC (Counter-terrorism Clearance): 

Important note 

 
Successful candidates for roles based in our 2 Marsham Street building must meet the security requirements before they can be appointed. The level of security needed is counter-terrorist check and the process can take up to 8 weeks to complete. 
 
Please note that successful candidates will need to pass the CTC security checks – this requires you to have been resident in the UK for the past 3 years. Please refer to the DLUHC Notes on Security Clearance section of our Candidate Pack for further information on Counter Terrorism Clearance (CTC). Thank you. 
 
Candidates should also note that with effect from 1st August 2018 the department will also check all applicants who are successful at interview, against the Internal Fraud Database (IFD) held by the Cabinet Office. In accordance with the Civil Service Internal Fraud Policy, any applicant who is included on the IFD will be refused employment by DLUHC. Please see the Candidate Pack for further information on the Internal Fraud Database. 

Before starting your application it’s very important to make sure that you are eligible to apply and meet the Civil Service nationality requirements. All candidates are expected to read the information provided in the DLUHC candidate pack regarding nationality requirements and rules 

Candidate Pack Information 

Please see attached Candidate pack for further information. 

Internal Fraud Database 

The Internal Fraud function of the Fraud, Error, Debt and Grants Function at the Cabinet Office processes details of civil servants who have been dismissed for committing internal fraud, or who would have been dismissed had they not resigned. The Cabinet Office receives the details from participating government organisations of civil servants who have been dismissed, or who would have been dismissed had they not resigned, for internal fraud. In instances such as this, civil servants are then banned for 5 years from further employment in the civil service. The Cabinet Office then processes this data and discloses a limited dataset back to DLUHC as a participating government organisations. DLUHC then carry out the pre employment checks so as to detect instances where known fraudsters are attempting to reapply for roles in the civil service. In this way, the policy is ensured and the repetition of internal fraud is prevented.  

For more information please see- Internal Fraud Register 

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

Security

Successful candidates must undergo a criminal record check.

Successful candidates must meet the security requirements before they can be appointed. The level of security needed is counter-terrorist check (opens in a new window).

See our vetting charter (opens in a new window).

People working with government assets must complete baseline personnel security standard (opens in new window) checks.

Nationality requirements

This job is broadly open to the following groups:

• UK nationals

• nationals of Commonwealth countries who have the right to work in the UK

• nationals of the Republic of Ireland

• nationals from the EU, EEA or Switzerland with settled or pre-settled status or who apply for either status by the deadline of the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS) (opens in a new window)

• relevant EU, EEA, Swiss or Turkish nationals working in the Civil Service

• relevant EU, EEA, Swiss or Turkish nationals who have built up the right to work in the Civil Service

• certain family members of the relevant EU, EEA, Swiss or Turkish nationals

Further information on nationality requirements (opens in a new window)

Working for the Civil Service

The Civil Service Code (opens in a new window) sets out the standards of behaviour expected of civil servants.

We recruit by merit on the basis of fair and open competition, as outlined in the Civil Service Commission's recruitment principles (opens in a new window).

The Civil Service embraces diversity and promotes equal opportunities. As such, we run a Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) for candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria.

The Civil Service also offers a Redeployment Interview Scheme to civil servants who are at risk of redundancy, and who meet the minimum requirements for the advertised vacancy.