Planning and Enabling Manager (Large Sites) in London

Application closing date: 05/12/2025 at 23:59

Interviews will take place: Week commencing 15/12/2025

Location: Birmingham, London or Northstowe

This is a 12 month fixed term maternity cover.

A bit about the role...

Working in a team, the Planning and Enabling Manager will play an important role in planning and delivering homes on public land as part of new and expanding communities including Northstowe new town in Cambridgeshire. This is a unique opportunity to support housing delivery on a flagship project. You will be joining our highly skilled and friendly team who are committed to making positive change in how land is unlocked to deliver new homes in great neighbourhoods.

The Large Sites team within the Southern Development Region is committed to making positive change in how the sites we acquire are planned and delivered and believes in taking an innovative and creative approach to planning and enabling issues. It values diversity in experience and perspective to foster good multi-disciplinary working and problem solving.

This is a great chance to shape the future of housing delivery in a very physical and tangible way, working on one of the most exciting developments in the Country in a fast growing, national organisation with real social purpose. Working with key stakeholders, communities and a professional team of built environment professionals you will use experience and creative thinking to influence local plan preparation, secure planning permissions and guide implementation to help create a successful new community where people want to live.

The role involves supporting senior colleagues in the planning, design and delivery of key strategic projects around the south of England including Northstowe new town in Cambridgeshire. This is an excellent opportunity to bring innovative solutions to the planning and enabling offering.

A bit about you…

Educated to degree level or equivalent within the planning and property development fields, you’ll have a good understanding of house building, place making and community development. Whilst our day job is to deliver large numbers of new homes at pace on publicly owned sites, you will be used to "spinning several plates" at once and will always be looking for ways to improve and innovate.

You’ll be comfortable navigating the planning system, working on a range of planning issues; including community engagement, technical considerations and negotiations with local authorities. You will be well organised and a good communicator with an interest in place making and experience of instructing/interpreting outline planning permissions, negotiating and implementing s106 agreements and progressing reserved matters and discharge of condition applications.

Delivering on a mission as bold as ours isn’t always easy. You will be resilient and comfortable managing consultants and stakeholders and your discussions will always be shaped by a good understanding of the commercial and operational impact of what we do as a Large Sites team. You will enjoy working in an innovative, fun and engaging way and be able to negotiate and persuade.

As an experienced Planning professional you’ll have good project management skills and understand how to manage colleagues and consultants and be able to demonstrate you can work with others as part of a team in a collaborative, inclusive way. Experience of development/house building and community engagement would be beneficial.

Who are we? Homes England: The Housing and Regeneration Agency. We believe that affordable, quality homes in well-designed places are key to improving people’s lives. As the government’s housing and regeneration agency, we create thriving new places and transform urban areas, combining the full breadth of our powers, expertise, land, capital and influence to bring investment to communities and get more homes built.

How? We form long-term partnerships that bridge the gap between the public and private sector to meet local needs and aspirations. We use our influence to champion the creation of sustainable homes, communities and places that are brilliantly designed for the people that live there now, and in the future. And we use our funding and support to build a more resilient, diverse and innovative housing sector, helping new entrants in the market, encouraging modern methods of construction and design, and promoting the utmost attention to building safety.

Together with our partners, we’re accelerating the pace of house building, remediation and regeneration across the country, as we seek to deliver ever more affordable homes in places people are proud to call home for generations to come.

What we offer... As well as a competitive salary and 33 days annual leave, we are committed to 50/50 hybrid working. We’ll support you, wherever possible, so that you don’t miss out on what matters to you.

Membership of the Homes and Communities Agency Pension Scheme, which is a contributory defined benefit scheme with the amount you receive on retirement based on your salary and years worked at the Agency.

If you ever need a bit of extra help, we have a great employee assistance programme, a wide range of healthcare plans, financial wellbeing support and access to many great discounts with leading high street names.

Our range of network groups are also there to support you to be yourself at work and play a key role in helping shape our future.

If you are a member of a professional body, we’ll pay for your membership and once you get your digital kit, you’ll be good to go.

Homes England are a geographically diverse community. We work to a 50/50 office/home based model. Moving back into our office environments has enabled us to utilise our space and time together in the most collaborative way.

We would encourage all applicants to apply as soon as possible as we may close vacancies early should we receive a high number of applications. We also encourage you to apply using the full application option as opposed to quick apply, this is especially important if you would like to indicate to us that you would like to be considered under the disability confident scheme.

We’re a diverse team of more than 1,000 professionals spanning 17 professions, helping Homes England to be effective, efficient and deliver for communities. Our people remain at the heart of everything we do, and we’re committed to building an Agency that not only reflects the diverse communities we serve, but also champions inclusion in how we shape homes and places across the country.

You will be required to have the Right to Work in the UK and Homes England do not offer visa sponsorship. If your application is shortlisted to interview we will require you to provide proof of your Right to Work in the UK at this stage.

Your application needs to be in your own words, reflect your personal understanding and experience, and must not have been generated by AI tools such as ChatGPT.