Interim Head of Planning

An exceptional opportunity has at one of London’s most high profile and prestigious borough councils for an Interim Head of Planning.

You will strategically lead, manage and develop the borough’s planning service comprised of 80 members of staff across development management, building control, enforcement and land charges.

A key element of this role will involve providing leadership to the whole service, in particular supporting development management, including large and complex applications in conjunction with evaluating the current structure, identifying areas to implement change and improve operational efficiency.

You will also enhance customer experience across the service and direct the fee-generating and commercialisation opportunities of the Planning Service which currently processes over 5000 planning applications per year and strategic schemes in some of London’s largest regeneration areas.

 

 Key Responsibilities;
 

• Provide strategic leadership managing corporate budgets, coordinating structural / performance reviews and implement strategies to facilitate change and service improvements.
• develop and maintain an update to date Local Plan and associated supplementary planning documents to drive economic growth and increase housing supply across the borough.
• support an effective Planning Committee, through operation of the committee as well as associated tools such as the Place and Design Quality Review Panel.
• Manage a service budget in excess of 3 million pounds
• Represent the Council on strategic planning at the national, sub-regional and regional level including the GLA and ensuring the corporate statutory Duty to Co-operate responsibilities regarding plan making are adequately discharged. Lead on infrastructure planning for the Council including the collection and monitoring of S106 receipts, and the Community Infrastructure Levy.
• Ensure the integration of urban design policy and strategy to ensure the delivery of high quality and sustainable development in the borough.  
• Establish and maintain strong working relationships with elected members
• Implement change and re-structuring where necessary

Successful candidates will be MRTPI accredited with a degree in Town Planning or other relevant subject.

You must have practical experience and a proven track record managing a local authority planning service and coordinating multi-disciplinary teams across Development Management, Planning Policy, Regeneration and Building Control.

Furthermore you will have acquired experience leading and managing organisational change, managing budgets, close liaison with members and awareness or key issues facing local government.

For further information or an informal conversation, please feel free to contact Jeremy Wright at Macdonald & Company on 0207 318 5263.