Principal Planning Policy Officer

JOB DESCRIPTION

Organisation: London Borough of Waltham Forest

Directorate: Place

Grade: PO4 / PO5

Salary: £47,532 - £53,607 (Career graded)

Contract Type: Full-time

Working hours per week: 36

Weeks per year: 52

Application Deadline: 09/04/2025

Proposed Interview Date(s): TBC

Reference:1678

About Us:

Bursting with culture, energy, and opportunity, the London Borough of Waltham Forest is a fantastic and exciting place to work.

We are a highly ambitious borough. Driven by culture and the innate creativity of our residents, we have developed new and innovative ways to build our communities. Our Council is relentlessly resident-focused, insight-led, digitally driven and commercially minded; a Council focused on meeting the needs of our existing and future residents.

London Borough of Waltham Forest is one of the Mayor of London's Good Work Standard employers. This accreditation is a proof of our commitment to creating a healthy, fair and inclusive workplace. This includes fair pay and conditions, workplace well-being, skills and progression and diversity and recruitment.

About the role:

A hugely exciting opportunity has arisen for a Principal Planning Policy Officer in the dynamic and diverse Place and Design Team at Waltham Forest Council. This is a key place-shaping role in a team with a great track record and at the forefront of delivering vibrant, green, safe and accessible neighbourhoods across Waltham Forest.

We are looking for someone creative and energetic with demonstrable planning policy skills; who is looking to build on and share those skills to help shape sustainable growth that meets genuine local needs, with the right infrastructure delivered in the right places, and according to the Council's innovative Exemplar Design principles and values. With the team focused on the implementation of our ambitious adopted Local Plan this role will be key to unlocking delivery of new homes, workspace and infrastructure across the borough. The right candidate will be interested in strategic and infrastructure planning and urban design and knowledge and understanding of developers contribution regime will be advantageous.

You will work well with others and have the ability to communicate ideas and proposals effectively and will enjoy taking a creative approach to problem solving.

In this role you will work in multidisciplinary team, alongside a Principal Developer Contributions Officer, Developer Contributions Support Officer, GIS Officer and Data Quality Officer and report to the Strategic Planning and Infrastructure Lead.

The Place and Design Team

We are delivering the Council's Missions for a fairer borough through inclusive growth, and ensuring that we deliver the new homes and jobs needed, and that they are of exemplar quality and supported by the right infrastructure in the right places. We are committed to engaging the borough's diverse communities at all stages of the development cycle to ensure that future development brings the benefits they need and tackles the Climate Emergency head on.

We work within an inclusive structure that rejects silos, embraces sharing and learning and works flexibly and collaboratively. We have adopted a matrix working approach that assembles the right teams for the right projects, building resilience and skills. We also work collaboratively with other teams across the council, including Development Management, Area Regeneration, Employment, Business and Skills, Culture, Housing, Property, Capital Delivery, Strategy & Design, and Highways and engage meaningfully with our local communities, businesses, strategic authorities (such as GLA, TfL), investors and developers.

We are building a reputation as an innovative, positive, proactive team that delivers excellent results with work produced in house including an adopted Local Plan, award winning buildings and public spaces, our special Waltham Forest Design Awards, a visionary Leyton Mills SPD and a first class Local Heritage List.

Click here to download the Role Profile

Key Responsibilities:

• The role holder will play a key role in the development, adoption, implementation, monitoring and review of planning policy and the borough's statutory Development Plan Documents to direct and support the delivery of inclusive and sustainable growth to create a fairer, more equal borough.
• They will assist in the Local Plan preparation, implementation, monitoring and review, in accordance with statutory processes, government guidance and best practice, taking into account the spatial, economic, social, and environmental programmes and priorities of the Council and its delivery partners.
• They will work flexibly across the team to ensure the inclusive growth planned for in the Local Plan meets local needs, with the right infrastructure delivered in the right places, and according to the Council's innovative Exemplar Design principles and values.

Qualifications and Requirements:

To be considered for this position, you should meet the following requirements:

Planning graduate and eligibility or membership of the Royal Town Planning Institute.

PO4

• Significant experience, knowledge and understanding of the National Planning Policy Framework and the process of preparing a Local Plan, preparation of supplementary planning documents, review, and monitoring of Local Plan policy.
• Significant experience of developing and writing planning policy within a local authority, voluntary or private-sector context.
• Experience of dealing with developers, stakeholders, elected members and the general public at all levels confidently, sensitively and diplomatically, particularly in a customer focused environment
• Experience of working in a Planning Department including planning policy work or related experience from working in another part of the development industry.
• Experience of undertaking public consultation and engagement events on planning policy and other planning projects
• Good understanding of how services are provided in a local government context and political awareness and the issues facing local government.
• Experience of specialist software for the production of planning policy documents, and other related specialist database software and systems and guidance, advanced user of Microsoft Office.
• Experience of preparing significant reports, planning information work and statistical and research work.
• Ability to communicate effectively using a wide variety of media and methodologies, including written, oral, and visual means of communication and experience of providing information and advice to key decision makers, such as elected members and service directors.
• Highly numerate, with excellent analytical and problem-solving skills.
• Well-developed interpersonal, persuasion and negotiating skills.
• Ability to see the bigger picture as well as attend to detail.
• Self-motivated, enthusiastic, and able to work with minimal supervision.
• Accustomed to managing conflicting deadlines and a demanding workload.
• Demonstrable commitment to equal opportunities and equality in employment and service delivery

PO5 (in addition to the above)

• Substantial relevant experience of leading on the development and writing of planning policy within a local authority, voluntary or private-sector context.
• Substantial experience of providing specific policy advice and related planning advice to officers, members, planning applicants and the public.
• Good experience of /ability to provide evidence for local plan examinations and other appeals, hearings, or public inquiries.
• Sensitivity, persuasiveness, negotiation and assertiveness skills to communicate with diverse audiences in emotive circumstances, including excellent political awareness in problem solving and decision making.

Terms and conditions:

The below terms and conditions apply to this role:

• Satisfactory employment references and CIFAS identity checks;

As a public authority, we must ensure that members of staff in public-facing roles are able to speak fluent English. This means that they must have a command of spoken English, with confidence and accuracy, sufficient for the effective performance of their role. This requirement does not refer to any particular English language qualifications, regional or international accents, dialects, speech impediments or the tone of conversations. It does not require staff to speak only in English.

How to Apply:

Interested candidates are invited to submit their applications online by pressing the 'Apply' button below. This includes a supporting statement that outlines to us how your skills and experience make you a good candidate for this vacancy.

We reserve the right to close this vacancy early if we receive sufficient applications for the role. Therefore, if you are interested, please submit your application as early as possible.

Equal Opportunity Employer:

Waltham Forest is a diverse borough where diversity is valued and is integral to both, service delivery and employment of its staff. The Council is proud of its rich mix of communities and as the largest employer in the area, it works hard to respond to the changing needs of its population. We use our statutory duties on race, gender and disability equality and best practice in respect of age, faith and sexual orientation to ensure equality of opportunity in the workplace. The Council is committed to meeting its 4 equality objectives: - Promoting equality of opportunity - Opposing all forms of discrimination, intolerance and disadvantage - Ensuring our workforce reflects the diverse communities of Waltham Forest at all levels. - Providing fair, appropriate, accessible and excellent Services to all. Respecting Diversity is a core Council value.

To support the above and reduce the risk of bias in its recruitment activities, the council is operating an anonymous shortlisting process, which hides personal information that can identify individuals until their application has been considered for shortlisting. The council also operates a scheme whereby, for jobs graded up to and including scale SO2, internal candidates are considered first. This includes those candidates who self-identify as having a disability for the purposes of the Disability Confident scheme. For more information, please refer to our recruitment and selection policy.

We are keen to support employees to balance their working life with other commitments. Therefore, wherever possible, we will consider working arrangements that suit an individual's personal circumstances whilst still meeting the needs of the Council. If you would like to discuss the possible flexible working options that might be applicable to this role, please contact the person named below or feel free to discuss this during your interview.

For more information on the benefits of working for the Council, please visit https://www.walthamforest.gov.uk/jobs-and-training/find-jobs-and-other-opportunities/working-us.

Contact Information:

If you have any questions about this vacancy or the application process, please contact Marcin Manikowski, Head of Strategic Planning and Infrastructure at marcin.manikowski@walthamforest.gov.uk.

If you have any technical issues when trying to apply for this post, please contact our Recruitment Team via email at recruitment@walthamforest.gov.uk.

The Council's preference is for online application. However, if you have a disability and are unable to complete an online application, please email recruitment@walthamforest.gov.uk so we can arrange an alternative application method.

Click here for further information on the Human Resources recruitment privacy notice.