Planning Consultant – Development Management

Role - Planning Consultant – Development Management

Location - Salford (North West)

Salary - Negotiable

Contract Type - Permanent

Annual Leave - Min. 23 days

Travel - Expectation to travel as required

Hours - 37.5 hours per week, however there is a requirement to work flexibly to acheive the service requirements  of the business

A career defining opportunity for an ambitious planning professional looking to build their reputation and portfolio of planning experience in a successful, rapidly growing consultancy based in the North West.

1. About the role

As our Planning Consultant, you will be part of an ambitious, successful team providing our external clients (and our core client - Salford City Council) with high quality, timely and outcome based development management services. You will also be accountable for:

• Processing mainly planning and related applications (householder, minors, change of uses, prior approvals, certificates and discharge of conditions) in a timely manner, producing robust reports and recommendations to achieve desired and deliverable outcomes.
• Undertaking pre application discussions on planning and related applications (householder, change of uses, prior approvals and certificates etc), being proactive and problem solving to achieve deliverable outcomes in addition to preparing and presenting evidence on appeals for core and external clients.
• Contributing to the delivery and improvement of business management systems, procedures and processes.
• Working with your peers to distribute knowledge and ensure contemporary planning issues and legislation are cascaded and understood.
• Supporting the growth of the team by making a positive contribution to business development, securing repeat work and applying a commercial lens to all work undertaken and behaviours. 

2. About Us

For more than 30 years Capita has been working across the public and private sectors, solving the complex challenges of our clients, increasing productivity, enhancing their use of technology and data, improving customer and public services and adding value to the UK and local economies.

We do this by combining our talent, creativity, software, technology and innovation with sector knowledge and proven skills and expertise underpinned by our scaled operational platforms.

Our 70,000 talented, committed and engaged employees are essential to delivering business critical services and solutions across all our markets.

We work with clients across a range of sectors, including local government, central government, education, transport, health, life and pensions, insurance and other private sector organisations.

3. What you will do

As our Planning Consultant you will:       

• Be concise and possess the ability to communicate at all levels, be well organised and efficient, have a positive attitude, be proactive and solve problems to produce well balanced outcomes.
• Provide consistently high quality professional advice on planning matters to clients, members of the public, Councillors and others as necessary.
• Negotiate with applicants and agents in order to obtain high quality outcomes within given time constraints set out in our contractual arrangements with our core client and a range of external clients.
• Provide concise, accurate, justified and timely reports and recommendations on mainly planning and related applications (householder, change of uses, prior approvals, certificates and discharge of conditions) and pre application discussions applying current legislation and policy changes as appropriate.
• Support your peers to ensure project and team targets are met and knowledge and expertise is shared whilst assisting to secure new and repeat work in the way you deliver projects.
• Be willing to travel to meet our client requirements.
• Be agile, dynamic and have the capability to work in ever changing environments.

The above list is not meant to be an exhaustive range of tasks and responsibilities and is subject to the changing requirements of the business.

4. Your experience will include:

• Working towards membership of the Royal Town Planning Institute.
• Good level of ability to prioritise and manage a workload whilst working flexibly to meet both the commercial and contractual needs of the business.
• Some demonstrable experience of working as a planning officer or consultant in the public/private sector.
• An appropriate   level of knowledge and understanding and application of current and emerging planning legislation.
• Being ambitious to enhance the reputation of the Development Management service for innovation, quality and timeliness of delivery

5. What’s in it for you?

This is an exciting time in our development as we build on our established position as a leading provider of statutory planning services in the UK. Join us now and help shape our offer while continuing to deliver a first rate planning service to our existing clients.  We will motivate you to perform at your peak, recognising your achievements and rewarding them appropriately.  As well as a generous basic salary we also offer you a minimum 23 day’s holiday, discretionary annual bonus, company pension scheme and access to voluntary benefit options including; child care vouchers, share save scheme, life assurance, holiday buy and many more designed to suit your own personal lifestyle.

 Our business is an established and respected player in the Local Public Services markets, capable of challenging the ‘status quo’ and delivering outstanding client facing results. 

There are strong career opportunities across the Capita group nationwide and overseas, with a strategy of secondment and resource sharing to enable maximum opportunity for individuals.