Career Grade Planner

About us at Hounslow

We’d love you to join us at the London Borough of Hounslow! Our people are deeply committed to providing excellent services to our residents, doing all we can to make lives as good as they can be.

We are an outstanding council, serving an outstanding borough. With brilliant, visionary leadership, a dynamic Cabinet and a can-do culture, we’ve built strong partnerships which have transformed how we serve one of London’s most diverse boroughs. Hounslow is the world in one place and full of potential. We are stepping up for our residents like never before.

About our Commitment to Diversity and Inclusion

We live by five core values: Lead with Heart, Do New, Pass on the Power, Harness the Mix and Be a Rock. All our work has equality, diversity and inclusion at its very heart, best articulated in “Harness the Mix”. It's about breaking down barriers between our parts and people and unlocking the problem-solving power of our amazing mix of minds. We serve a diverse community, we have a diverse workforce and we are committed to being an inclusive employer.

We work hard to create representation across our workforce and leadership community, we have thriving employee network groups and our learning and development programmes help us lead, model and breathe ways of working that eliminate inequality, inequity, injustice and bias. 

As part of this and under our commitments as a Disability Confident Employer, we make reasonable adjustments to accommodate our candidates. There’s space for you to tell us what you need within our application form. 

Our Benefits

If you join us, you’ll have access to a range of employee benefits. Read more about these here.

About the Role

A Senior Planner will help with the delivery of major sites; leading on complex and major planning applications, liaising with developers, applicants and senior officers, conducting negotiations and presenting applications to Planning Committee. The appointment will be commensurate with experience.

We would also consider a planner at the beginning of their career and offer a fantastic opportunity to gain practical experience and to develop a strong foundation for a career within the Built Environment, determining a large number of householder and minor applications, as well as contributing to the overall work of the teams.

The posts require candidates who have a vision for developing the built environment to achieve the council’s aspirations, who have the confidence and capability to engage with developers, carry a caseload of major applications, and the ability and experience to work with less supervision in delivering the service.

About the Team You’ll Be Working In

Hounslow are looking for a Career Grade Planner to join their award-winning Development Management Team. The team are currently working on a wealth of planning applications critical to the social and economic wellbeing of the borough. We have high housing targets to achieve, new schools to place children in and need to create opportunities for employers who want to be in our well located borough. This must be balanced against acting on the boroughs Climate Emergency and with Green Belt, listed buildings, conservation areas and River Thames frontage that need protecting. All this needs to be delivered while playing a crucial supporting role in delivering the boroughs partnerships and values.

About You

·       Able to carry a caseload of planning applications and appeals and determine these within set deadlines and in accordance with quality indicators. Able to work flexibly in a changing environment responding quickly to conflicting workloads and changing priorities.

·       Able to identify the need for guidance from more senior staff.

·       Able to communicate in a sensitive and effective manner both orally and in writing and able to deal effectively with Members, the public, officers in other departments and outside organisations.

·       Able to demonstrate effective negotiation skills both inside and outside the authority, e.g. experience of negotiating major planning gain, complex enforcement matters.

·       To maintain an up to date technical knowledge of planning related legislation, principles and practice including knowledge of climate science and planning law.

·       Ability to interpret legislation, and to impart knowledge to a team.

·       Able to assess existing work practices and make recommendations for improvements.

·       If the points below resonate with you, we’d love you to put in an application:

·       A passion for the built environment and how residents experience and interact with the environment around them.

·       Enthusiasm for working within a team that seeks to find creative and pragmatic solutions to problems facing the borough.

·       A desire to proactively engage with officers, Councillors, residents and developers to negotiation best outcomes on schemes.

·       Devotion to tackling equalities where they exist within both the workplace and the borough in general.

Read more about the work you’ll be doing in the Role Profile.

When Interviews Will Be Held and Who to Contact

The key information you need about the role should be in the role profile, but if you have any further questions about the role, please contact:

Email: Matthew.Rees@hounslow.gov.uk

Telephone: 0208 583 6623

Interviews for this job will be held during week commencing 16th December 2024.

Closing Date: 15 December 2024