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Are you looking for an exciting opportunity to help shape national changes to the planning system? In the summer the King's Speech set out plans to accelerate the delivery of high quality infrastructure and housing through reforms to the planning system.

The Department is seeking to recruit a number of people with planning experience to play key roles in delivering these changes and supporting further policy development. These Higher Planning Officer roles offer an exciting opportunity to help shape the future direction of planning nationally.

They cover a wide range of planning matters, including Planning Infrastructure, Development Management, National Planning Policy and Development Plans. We particularly welcome candidates from an ethnic minority background and other underrepresented groups to apply, as we work to continually improve our ability to represent the places and communities we support through our work.

The successful candidates will play a crucial role in policy delivery and developing proposals for planning reform. Working as part of small teams, you will provide specialist planning expertise and support required to deliver the Government’s objectives.

Many of the roles will involve developing evidence, feeding into and developing new regulations and national planning policy with opportunities to engage with Ministers, other Departments, local planning authorities, the Planning Inspectorate and users of the planning system.

The roles will involve working with senior officials across Whitehall, as well as engagement with a wide range of external partners including business and local government. Post holders will work collaboratively with colleagues across the Planning and Housing Directorates as well as closely with legal colleagues, analysts and other government departments. 

There are roles available in the following Divisions within the Planning Directorate:

Planning Development Management - The Development Management Division is responsible for the end to end planning process, including the planning permission process from pre-application to build out, permitted development rights, fees, appeals, compulsory purchase, brownfield land registers, permission in principle and local authority planning resourcing and performance. The successful candidate will support developing regulations relating to fees and supporting local authority planning resourcing and performance.

Planning Development Plans - The Development Plans Division is responsible for a wide range of policy that aims to get land into the planning system and ensuring development happens in the right places by supporting local areas to have up to date development plans. Getting up to date plans in place is a Government priority and this is a fast-paced area, with a high-level of engagement with local planning authorities, other Government departments, Private Offices, and across planning and housing directorates.

Planning Strategy - The Planning Strategy Division lead on a range of national planning policy matters including planning for new housing. A range of planning reforms have been introduced recently through the Levelling Up and Regeneration Act and we are currently consulting on revisions to national planning policy. The successful candidate will support high profile policy development and help drive forward wider planning reforms.

Planning Infrastructure - The Planning Infrastructure Division is responsible for the Nationally Significant Infrastructure (NSIP) Regime. The successful candidates will support work implementing and taking forward reforms to the NSIP Regime.

These are specialist town planning roles for candidates who must have a Royal Town Planning Institute (RTPI) accredited degree to be considered. It requires relevant knowledge and understanding of the town planning system, including experience and evidence of eligibility for membership of the RTPI.

We are looking for planners who can demonstrate: 

• Excellent written, presentational, and verbal communication skills. 

• Good knowledge of the history and development of the town planning system in England and how the planning system in England works.  

• Good understanding of the key priorities of the Government and how this will impact on the planning system, along with the key government planning policies. 

• Ability to deliver pieces of work on technical planning matters to short deadlines. 

Desirable criteria:

• Good political awareness and understanding of central and local government. 

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £32,178, Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government contributes £9,321 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.

• 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 employer contribution of 28.97%

Things you need to know

As part of our pre-employment checking process we will be using your CV to confirm your job history. Please note that by providing us with your CV you are consenting to us using the information enclosed as part of the checking process. Unless stated otherwise in the advert, your CV will not form part of the assessment but will be used for information purposes and only shared with the panel at interview stage. 

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 (Lead Behaviour): Making Effective Decisions

Behaviour: Seeing the Big Picture

Behaviour: Working Together

Technical: Please provide an example of a situation that challenged a specific area of your town planning skills. What did you do to overcome that challenge?

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 the following success profiles elements:    

Behaviours: Making Effective Decisions, Communicating and Influencing, Delivering at Pace

Strengths

The strength based questions will require natural responses from the candidates.  

Candidates will be expected to deliver a presentation at interview stage, the details of which would be provided upon invitation.

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

Behaviours: Making Effective Decisions, Seeing the Big Picture, Working Together, Communicating and Influencing, Delivering at Pace

Technical: Yes

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. 

HEO salary 

• The salary for this role is £32,178 (National). 

• For existing civil servants, the usual policy on level transfer and promotion will apply and is non-negotiable. If you apply for a role that requires a transfer of location, for example if you are transferring from London to a National location, your salary will be adjusted in accordance with our policy on transfer between HQ pay ranges. 

  Please note that the average employer pension contribution is based upon the National minimum salary for this role. Should your agreed starting salary for this role be different, the average employer pension contribution will be calculated accordingly. If you are a Secondee, this will not apply as you will remain on your home organisation’s terms and conditions.   

BENEFITS: 

Transfers across the Civil Service on or after 4 October 2018:  Any move to MHCLG 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 MHCLG employees, please see the attached Candidate Pack. 

GEOGRAPHICAL LOCATION: 

• Leeds

• Wolverhampton 

• Darlington* 

• Birmingham

• Bristol

• Manchester  

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.  

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 w/c 14th October 2024 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 in 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. Those candidates who do not wish to remain on the reserve list should contact recruitment@communities.gov.uk to be removed from the reserve list. 

Candidate Pack Information 

Please see attached Candidate pack for further information. 

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 MHCLG candidate pack regarding nationality requirements and rules 

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 MHCLG as a participating government organisations. MHCLG 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.

Successful candidates must undergo a criminal record check.

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

This job is broadly open to the following groups:

• UK nationals

• nationals of the Republic of Ireland

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

• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities with settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS) (opens in a new window)

• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities who have made a valid application for settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS)

• individuals with limited leave to remain or indefinite leave to remain who were eligible to apply for EUSS on or before 31 December 2020

• Turkish nationals, and certain family members of Turkish nationals, who have accrued the right to work in the Civil Service

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

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.

The Civil Service is committed to attract, retain and invest in talent wherever it is found. To learn more please see the Civil Service People Plan (opens in a new window) and the Civil Service Diversity and Inclusion Strategy (opens in a new window).

Apply and further information

This vacancy is part of the Great Place to Work for Veterans (opens in a new window) initiative.

Once this job has closed, the job advert will no longer be available. You may want to save a copy for your records.

Job contact :

• Name :Catherine Holton

• Email :planninggraduatescheme@levellingup.gov.uk

Recruitment team

• Email :recruitment@communities.gov.uk