Head of City Planning Policy 

Salary range: £71,898 - £80,217 per annum.   

About Us:

THE EXTRAORDINARY STORY OF HAYLEA’S UNBEATABLE SPIRIT

Westminster City Council is a world of extraordinary stories. Where people use their optimism and talent to achieve more than anyone thought possible.

Nobody personifies this more than Haylea Navarro. Born with cerebral palsy and paralysed down one side since birth, Haylea has been gleefully proving people wrong ever since. Now a project officer, she brings faster broadband connectivity to Westminster businesses, boosting the economy for all. Throw in her gong at the 2020 London Apprenticeship Awards, and it’s clear for all to see just what can happen when you never give in.

The Role:

As Head of City Planning Policy you can make your own powerful contribution to Westminster’s success. Leading the preparation of the plans, strategies and development documents that make up our Local Plan, and managing the consultation and legal procedures involved in the development of our partial City Plan review, it’ll be your task to make the arrangements for further consultation, and lead the planning policy team through a public examination – all with a view to eventual adoption.

But your work won’t stop here – you’ll also lead the development of our other spatial, environmental and neighbourhood planning policies, and support your senior colleagues and as we drive the strategic agenda of the council through policy development, project leadership and partnership working. We‘ll also expect you to be proactive in helping achieve tight budgetary control, and prioritise the use of resources and assets to support the delivery of the council’s City for All vision while ensuring we receive value for money from our expenditure.

You’ll have a wide range of additional responsibilities – one of these will involve bringing together multi-disciplinary teams to develop innovative and deliverable solutions that deliver the council’s policy and public affairs priorities. We’ll also expect you to lead by example as you model and embed our values and behaviours, working collaboratively to deliver our transformation objectives and priorities, and helping to develop our reputation as a successful council delivering great value for its residents.

About You:

With qualifications and practical experience in town planning or a related field, you’ll have led and developed a function or service in a large multi-disciplined organisation with comparable budgets and resources to ours. Ready to build partnerships and productive working relationships with senior managers, councillors and a range of partner organisations and communities, we’ll also expect you to be capable of managing resources in a multi-disciplinary environment, and have a successful track record of business planning and budget, quality and performance management.

It's important that you have sound knowledge of the issues facing local government and those relevant to town planning, together with the legal, financial and political context of public sector management. Capable of working in a democratic environment and translating strategic objectives into operational plans, you’ll also be ready to use your superb interpersonal skills to inspire, motivate, coach and develop your team members and colleagues.

Your superb communication and influencing skills will allow you to develop excellent relationships with a wide range of stakeholders, while your excellent financial and budget management skills mean that you’ll be capable of delivering economies through creative and efficient working practices. We’ll also expect you to be committed to equality and diversity, both as a leader and service deliverer.

The Council is committed to achieving diverse shortlists to support our desire to increase the number of staff from underrepresented groups in our workforce. We especially encourage applications from a global majority background and, while the role is open to all applicants,  we will utilise the positive action provisions of the Equality Act 2010 to appoint a candidate from a global majority background where there is a choice between two candidates of equal merit. If you are from a Global Majority background you can self-declare this to the hiring manager as part of our positive action commitments.

What We Offer:

Westminster is an amazing place. We are home to more than 200,000 residents from all backgrounds, over 50,000 vibrant and vital businesses and three-quarters-of-a-million people work in Westminster. Westminster City Council’s strategy is to work towards a Fairer Westminster. A Fairer Westminster is one in which our communities are at the heart of our decision-making and help to determine the city’s future. By working directly with our communities and other partners, we can build a more inclusive city that celebrates our diverse communities, and where residents, workers and visitors from all backgrounds will feel welcome and safe.

At Westminster City Council, we pride ourselves on being an inclusive workplace and employer of choice. We encourage and welcome applications from people from all backgrounds and aim to have a workforce that, at all levels, represents the communities we serve. We champion equality, diversity, inclusion and wellbeing and aim to create a workplace where everyone feels valued, has a sense of belonging and is empowered to be their best, that is the Westminster Way. To find out more about how we do this visit https://www.westminster.gov.uk/health-and-social-care/public-health-strategy-policies-and-reports/equality-duties

As a forward-thinking Council we appreciate that people work in different ways, therefore our staff benefit from working a range of flexible working patterns as well as Agile working.

The Council is a Disability Confident Employer. If you have declared a disability in your application, we guarantee an interview if you meet the essential criteria of the job. If you are invited for interview, you will be asked if you need any reasonable adjustments in order to attend, and we will make these wherever possible.

Politically Restricted post: Yes
Closing date: 03 December 2023
Interview dates: 12 and 14 December 2023. Please note a resident panel will form part of the interview process. 
Contact details for an informal discussion: Ezra Wallace, Director of Policy and Projects, via email: EWALLACE@WESTMINSTER.GOV.UK