Planning Policy Manager in London

The role

The Role

Southwark Council is a Central London borough which is changing rapidly, being at the centre of a dynamic world city with a huge regeneration agenda. The Planning Division is looking to recruit a qualified and experienced Planning and Monitoring Innovation Manager to lead on planning policy and strategy for development, to deliver the council’s political and service delivery objectives. The role will also lead on monitoring and implementing change to modernise and digitise the planning service.

The Planning Service provides a source of professional expertise to assess planning applications and to write planning policies and to monitor change and development to make sure that the planning service is contemporary.

In this role, you will develop effective working relationships with colleagues internally and with planners throughout London to ensure you understand their aims and priorities. You will work in partnership with planning colleagues and professional associations to drive forward their improvement agenda through their staff. You will also have the opportunity to actively lead your own team development plan and service within the division. You will ensure that the work you deliver is of highly, relevant and is delivered on time. You will be expected to actively seek out learning opportunities to maintain and develop your planning expertise as part of an agenda for change and innovation.

About Southwark

We are the largest local authority social landlord in London, managing 55,000 homes lived in by 40% of Southwark’s residents. We are home to over 18,300 businesses including iconic London venues and social enterprises and we have a young, diverse and growing population.

At Southwark we are committed to making our borough just and fair and are taking positive action to tackle inequalities. Our residents and communities are our greatest asset and the passion we have for Southwark is shared by millions of Londoners who enjoy our outstanding cultural offer, use our hospitals and attend our universities. Our refreshed borough plan and focus on Southwark Stands Together, (which is our work with Southwark’s communities and the council’s staff to tackle racism, injustice and inequality) underpins all that we do.

About you

This role will be challenging, requiring candidates to be enthusiastic and passionate about learning and contributing to the wide variety of work undertaken by the division.

You’ll have a planning qualification, be able to demonstrate substantial knowledge and experience of planning in a major city environment, together with the ability to manage a complex range of work including supervising others and to deliver this to deadlines to a consistently high quality. You will also strive for continuous improvement and be able to contribute to new innovative forms of service delivery.

This role will involve writing policy, research, monitoring, partnership working and working with consultants as well as working on the Local Plan. Suitable candidates should be able to demonstrate knowledge of planning policy particularly an understanding of strategic planning issues, how to interpret them simply and translate complex issues into development management policies.