Description:
Our client, a leading strategic land promoter, is seeking an experienced Senior Planner to join their growing team, taking a lead role in progressing sites through the planning system from allocation to consent.
Key Responsibilities:
- Lead the preparation and submission of outline and detailed planning applications for strategic residential-led sites
- Manage multi-disciplinary consultant teams (highways, ecology, landscape, heritage, drainage) to deliver planning strategies on time and on budget
- Promote sites through Local Plan processes, including Call for Sites submissions, Regulation 18/19 representations, and Examination in Public participation
- Build and maintain relationships with Local Planning Authorities, Members, and key stakeholders to de-risk and accelerate consents
- Negotiate Section 106 agreements and CIL matters alongside legal and commercial colleagues
- Instruct and manage Counsel and expert witnesses for public inquiries and hearings where required
- Monitor planning policy changes (NPPF, local plan reviews) and assess implications for the land portfolio
- Support land acquisition teams with planning due diligence and site appraisal for new opportunities
- Present planning strategies and risk assessments to internal investment committees
- Mentor junior planners and contribute to the wider team's technical development
Experience & Requirements:
- Degree in Town Planning or related discipline; RTPI membership (or working towards) preferred
- 5+ years' post-qualification experience, ideally within a land promotion, housebuilder, or planning consultancy environment
- Demonstrable track record of securing consents on strategic sites (100+ units)
- Strong working knowledge of Local Plan processes and plan-making
- Experience presenting at Planning Committee and/or Public Inquiry
- Excellent stakeholder management skills, comfortable engaging with council officers, elected members, and communities
- Commercially minded, with an understanding of viability and land value implications of planning strategy
- Full UK driving licence and willingness to travel across the site portfolio