Senior Policy Advisor: Local Government Finance Capital Team

Bristol, Darlington, Leeds, London, Manchester, Wolverhampton
Job Summary
Are you able to build strong relationships that will enable you to influence and challenge stakeholders at all levels?
Are you able to interpret data and draw conclusions to develop effective policy?
If so, we have an exciting opportunity for a Policy Advisor to join our team at the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) and we\’d love to hear from you!
The Local Government Finance (LGF) Directorate plays an increasingly central role in delivering the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government’s key priorities. Working closely with other government departments, HM Treasury, and No. 10, LGF is responsible for ensuring that councils have both the funding and the accountability mechanisms needed to deliver the vital front-line services on which communities depend.
This role sits within the team responsible for policy and stewardship of the local government capital finance system—the framework that governs how councils borrow and invest to support local services and contribute to national priorities. The team identifies and addresses systemic risks, ensures the capital system is fit for purpose, and acts as a centre of expertise supporting a wide range of cross-cutting local government initiatives. While this is a policy-focused role, it is particularly well suited to individuals with an interest in public finance and in developing specialist expertise to shape and influence government thinking. The team works collaboratively with other policy areas and key stakeholders, including HM Treasury.
We are seeking an motivated, collaborative, and willing person for a SEO role in our team. Prior knowledge of local government finance is not essential; what matters most is a willingness to learn and a genuine interest in the role. You will receive full support to build your knowledge of the sector. The work is fast-paced, varied, and intellectually stimulating, offering the opportunity to contribute to important decisions at the heart of government and to play a key part in the Department’s stewardship of the local government finance system.
Job Description

• Provide insight and advice to support effective decision-making, contributing to policy development and the Department’s stewardship of the local government sector.
• Draw on a wide range of evidence, including data analysis, to identify risks and understand financial pressures at both individual local authority and sector-wide levels.
• Contribute to operational processes for assessing council loan applications, ensuring decisions are robust, timely, and well-evidenced.
• Work collaboratively with a range of stakeholders — including other government departments, local authorities, and sector bodies — to develop effective and defensible policy.
• Provide insight and advice to support effective decision-making, contributing to policy development and the Department’s stewardship of the local government sector.
• Draw on a wide range of evidence, including data analysis, to identify risks and understand financial pressures at both individual local authority and sector-wide levels.
• Contribute to operational processes for assessing council loan applications, ensuring decisions are robust, timely, and well-evidenced.
• Work collaboratively with a range of stakeholders — including other government departments, local authorities, and sector bodies — to develop effective and defensible policy.

Person specification
We are looking for someone who is comfortable working with different types of information to develop clear, evidence-based advice and proposals, taking into account broader policy and strategic considerations. You will be able to plan and manage your own work effectively, including leading projects and driving progress independently where needed. You will have strong communication skills, with the ability to explain complex issues clearly and concisely to a range of audiences — including ministers, senior officials, and external stakeholders — and to place those issues in their wider policy and political context. You should also be confident working collaboratively and influencing others, including colleagues across the Department, HM Treasury, other spending departments, local authorities, and professional bodies such as CIPFA.
Essential Criteria

• Ability to manage and deliver projects effectively from start to finish, meeting deadlines and maintaining high standards throughout.
• Comfortable with using a range of tools to analyse and interpret data from different sources and use this to identify issues, trends and inform advice. Competency with Excel and/or other data analysis tools.
• Good relationship management skills, with the ability to work collaboratively across teams and through others — both within MHCLG and with a wide range of external partners.
• Able to work under pressure, with the credibility to influence others and support progress.
• Ability to understand complex issues and communicate them clearly and concisely to different audiences.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills, including confidence in engaging with senior stakeholders such as Ministers and senior officials.
• Ability to draw on a range of evidence to develop clear advice and strategies, assessing options, risks, and impacts effectively.

Behaviours
We\’ll assess you against these behaviours during the selection process:

• Making Effective Decisions
• Seeing the Big Picture
• Communicating and Influencing
• Delivering at Pace
• Working Together

Alongside your salary of £40,669, Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government contributes £11,781 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.

• Learning and development tailored to your role.
• An environment with flexible working options.
• A culture encouraging inclusion and diversity.
• A Civil Service pension with an employer contribution of 28.97%.

Selection process details
This vacancy is using Success Profiles (opens in a new window), and will assess your Behaviours, Strengths and Ability.
As part of our pre-employment checking process, we will be using your CV to confirm your job history. Please note that by providing us with your CV you are consenting to us using the information enclosed as part of the checking process.
Our application system is designed to remove as much bias as possible from the recruitment system – this means that a hiring manager does not know your name, your details, see your whole application in one go (or have your CV at review stage unless stated otherwise).
At application stage you will be asked to upload a CV document. Unless stated otherwise in the advert, your CV will not form part of the assessment but will be used for information purposes and only shared with the panel at interview stage.
Your answers are randomised and chunked up. This means that each assessor views sets of responses to each question rather than seeing a candidate’s full application. The science behind this is that recruitment can be subject to ordering and fatigue effects and we want to reduce this as much as possible.
Most of our campaigns utilise multiple assessors and so it is possible that each of your answers would be viewed by different assessors.
When Writing Your Application, Remember

• that the assessor won’t be reading your answers sequentially
• do not assume that the same assessors will have read all of your answers
• if talking about something in your first answer, make sure that write the second answer as if you had not written the first (and so on!)

We do not consider direct CV applications – you must apply for this role via the application link on Civil Service Jobs.
At Sift, We Will Be Assessing
Behaviour 1: Making Effective Decisions (lead behaviour)
Behaviour 2: Seeing the Big Picture
Behaviour 3: Communicating and Influencing
There is a 250 word limit per question.
In the event that we receive a large number of applications, we may conduct an initial sift using the lead behaviour listed in the advert. Candidates who pass the initial sift may be progressed to a full sift, or progressed straight to assessment/interview.
The interview will be of a blended nature consisting of:
Behaviours: Making Effective Decisions, Delivering at Pace, Working Together.
Strengths: The strength-based questions will require natural responses from the candidates.
Ability: Candidates will be expected to do an analysis exercise on excel, more details will be provided with the interview invite.
In the full campaign we will test the below Success Profile Elements:
Behaviours
Ability
Please contact the vacancy manager if you have any questions about the role.
SEO salary

• The salary for this role is £44,319 (London) or £40,669 (National).
• For existing civil servants, the usual policy on level transfer and promotion will apply and is non-negotiable.

Please note that the average employer pension contribution is based upon the National minimum salary for this role. Should your agreed starting salary for this role be different, the average employer pension contribution will be calculated accordingly. If you are a Secondee, this will not apply as you will remain on your home organisation’s terms and conditions.
Benefits
Transfers across the Civil Service on or after 4 October 2018:
Any move to MHCLG from another employer will mean you can no longer access childcare vouchers. This includes moves between government departments. You may however be eligible for other government schemes, including Tax-Free Childcare. Determine your eligibility at further information about the benefits available to MHCLG employees, please see the attached Candidate Pack.
Geographical Location

• Bristol
• Darlington*
• Leeds
• London
• Manchester
• Wolverhampton

There may be opportunities for candidates to work flexibly depending on the business needs. This will be discussed with the vacancy manager on a case-by-case basis if you are successful for the role.

• Please note: The Darlington Economic Campus is a pioneering new cross-government hub which will bring together people across departments and public organisations to play an active role in the most important economic issues of the day. The work of the Campus will make a real difference to people both across the UK and internationally. There will be substantial career opportunities and exciting prospects – a career at the Campus means you will be working at the heart of Government, with access to the benefits and fantastic opportunities offered by the civil service.

For further information on the DEC, please take a look at the attached DEC candidate pack.
Sift and interview dates
Sifting is envisaged to take place W/C 21st July 2025 with interview dates to be confirmed. All interviews are currently being held remotely via videocall.
Reserve List
In the event that we identify more appointable candidates than we currently have posts available, we will hold applicant details on a reserve list for a period of 6 months from which further appointments can be made. This may include roles at a lower grade. Candidates placed on a reserve list will be informed of this. Due to the length of time CTC checks can take, our HR Shared Services team will contact reserve list candidates for London based roles to commence CTC checks. Those candidates who do not wish to remain on the reserve list should contact to be removed from the reserve list.
Please note that near miss offers may be made at the lower grade to candidates who do not meet the grade criteria for this campaign
Security Clearance Requirements
CTC Clearance (London)
All MHCLG colleagues must meet the Baseline Personnel Security Standard. This is a series of basic security checks to confirm identity and employment history. In addition to the BPSS, all staff based at our Marsham Street office in must be cleared to at least Counter Terrorism Check level – this requires you to have been resident in the UK for the past 3 years.
Fixed Term Details
External candidates: You will be offered a 1 year fixed term appointment with a possibility of extension.
Existing civil servants : You will be offered a 1 year loan opportunity. Before applying for the role, you will need to seek approval from your parent department to take up a loan appointment should you be successful.
MHCLG employees : You will retain your existing contract.
Before starting your application it’s very important to make sure that you are eligible to apply and meet the Civil Service nationality requirements. All candidates are expected to read the information provided in the MHCLG candidate pack regarding nationality requirements and rules
Candidate Pack Information
Please see attached Candidate pack for further information.
Internal Fraud Database
The Internal Fraud function of the Fraud, Error, Debt and Grants Function at the Cabinet Office processes details of civil servants who have been dismissed for committing internal fraud, or who would have been dismissed had they not resigned. The Cabinet Office receives the details from participating government organisations of civil servants who have been dismissed, or who would have been dismissed had they not resigned, for internal fraud. In instances such as this, civil servants are then banned for 5 years from further employment in the civil service. The Cabinet Office then processes this data and discloses a limited dataset back to MHCLG as a participating government organisations. MHCLG then carry out the pre employment checks so as to detect instances where known fraudsters are attempting to reapply for roles in the civil service. In this way, the policy is ensured and the repetition of internal fraud is prevented.
For more information please see: Internal Fraud Register.
Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.
This vacancy is using Success Profiles (opens in a new window), and will assess your Behaviours, Strengths and Ability.
Security
Successful candidates must undergo a criminal record check.
Successful candidates must meet the security requirements before they can be appointed. The level of security needed is counter-terrorist check (opens in a new window).See our vetting charter (opens in a new window).
People working with government assets must complete baseline personnel security standard (opens in new window) checks.
Successful candidates must undergo a criminal record check.
Successful candidates must meet the security requirements before they can be appointed. The level of security needed is counter-terrorist check (opens in a new window).See our vetting charter (opens in a new window).
People working with government assets must complete baseline personnel security standard (opens in new window) checks.
Nationality requirements
This Job Is Broadly Open To The Following Groups

• UK nationals
• nationals of the Republic of Ireland
• nationals of Commonwealth countries who have the right to work in the UK
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities with settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS) (opens in a new window)
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities who have made a valid application for settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS)
• individuals with limited leave to remain or indefinite leave to remain who were eligible to apply for EUSS on or before 31 December 2020
• Turkish nationals, and certain family members of Turkish nationals, who have accrued the right to work in the Civil Service

Further information on nationality requirements (opens in a new window)
Working for the Civil Service
The Civil Service Code (opens in a new window) sets out the standards of behaviour expected of civil servants.
We recruit by merit on the basis of fair and open competition, as outlined in the Civil Service Commission\’s recruitment principles (opens in a new window).
The Civil Service embraces diversity and promotes equal opportunities. As such, we run a Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) for candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria.
The Civil Service also offers a Redeployment Interview Scheme to civil servants who are at risk of redundancy, and who meet the minimum requirements for the advertised vacancy.
The Civil Service Code (opens in a new window) sets out the standards of behaviour expected of civil servants.
We recruit by merit on the basis of fair and open competition, as outlined in the Civil Service Commission\’s recruitment principles (opens in a new window).
The Civil Service embraces diversity and promotes equal opportunities. As such, we run a Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) for candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria.
The Civil Service also offers a Redeployment Interview Scheme to civil servants who are at risk of redundancy, and who meet the minimum requirements for the advertised vacancy.
Diversity and Inclusion
The Civil Service is committed to attract, retain and invest in talent wherever it is found. To learn more please see the Civil Service People Plan (opens in a new window) and the Civil Service Diversity and Inclusion Strategy (opens in a new window).
This vacancy is part of the Great Place to Work for Veterans (opens in a new window) initiative.
Once this job has closed, the job advert will no longer be available. You may want to save a copy for your records.
Contact point for applicants
Job Contact

• Name : Michael Brook
• Email :

Recruitment team

• Email :

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