Assistant Area Land Agent

Job summary

This is an exciting opportunity to join a skilled and collaborative team of surveyors and land agents in the country’s largest land management organisation. Forestry England delivers for people, nature and the climate, and we are seeking a motivated and capable individual to undertake a diverse range of estate management
responsibilities across a wide and varied landscape. The role will be based in Forestry England’s central district.

The Estate team in the central district comprises two area land agents, a building surveyor, an estates work supervisor and estates administration officer. The central district covers a large area from Merseyside across to Lincolnshire and from Greater Manchester down to Northamptonshire. The portfolio comprises diverse
woodlands and open habitats including ancient woodland, productive conifer and broadleaf forests, community woodlands on former brownfield land and 100 buildings.

As an Assistant Area Land Agent, you will play a key role within the central district team. You will provide professional support and advice to both the forest operations and recreation management teams, while also taking the lead in managing and negotiating a wide range of property-related agreements. These include new agreements and renewals covering commercial, agricultural and sporting work across Forestry England’s freehold and leasehold estate.

The role also involves managing third-party liability claims in partnership with our legal advisers, completing RICS Red Book valuations for financial reporting, handling wayleaves and deeds of grant with utility providers and developers, and supporting tenders and leases for new recreation activities and development projects.

There will be opportunities to contribute to work in Biodiversity Net Gain and renewable energy.

You will sit on the management team within the district and use this role to inspire, encourage, challenge and develop leadership.

Job description

Key Responsibilities & Accountabilities

• Manage landlord and tenant relationships, ensuring timely and effective delivery of new lettings, rent reviews and lease renewals across commercial premises, recreation sites, residential properties, agricultural land and farms, telecoms sites and sporting agreements.
• Support the recreation team in managing existing tenants and assist with new tenders and leases linked to recreation activities and development opportunities.
• Investigate and safeguard Forestry England’s interests concerning access rights, encroachments, boundary issues and third-party liability claims.
• Manage wayleave agreements, utility interactions and deeds of grant relating to access and services.
• Interpret leases from both landlord and tenant perspectives, providing sound professional advice to colleagues in forestry and recreation teams.
• Work with colleagues to support major development and investment projects, contributing to the long-term financial sustainability of the Estate.
• Undertake RICS Red Book valuations for financial and reporting purposes.
• Work with the building surveyors on Forestry England’s property strategy including implementing strategic asset management plans.

And any other tasks, reasonably requested by your line manager.

Person specification

Skills, Knowledge & Experience

Essential professional and technical experience

• Demonstrable experience in mixed-use property management (commercial, residential and rural), including management of landlord and tenant relationships, and the negotiation of new agreements, rent reviews and lease renewals.
• Ability to analyse complex estate management challenges and develop pragmatic, detailed solutions.
• Competent IT user, with experience in the MS Office suite and GIS systems (full training will be provided on Forestry England’s GIS platform).
• Experience working within a team and in collaboration with external consultants.
• Strong conflict-resolution skills, with the ability to manage sensitive situations diplomatically.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills..

Desirable professional and technical experience

• Previous experience undertaking or assisting with RICS Red Book valuations across varied property types.
• Registered valuer or be working towards becoming a registered valuer.

Qualifications

Essential

Current membership of the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) as either MRICS or AssocRICS (applicants who are not MRICS or AssocRICS will need to show that they are working towards taking their APC and have demonstrable experience)

Behaviours

We'll assess you against these behaviours during the selection process:

• Seeing the Big Picture
• Making Effective Decisions
• Delivering at Pace

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £40,388, Forestry Commission contributes £11,700 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%

Things you need to know

Artificial intelligence

Artificial intelligence can be a useful tool to support your application, however, all examples and statements provided must be truthful, factually accurate and taken directly from your own experience. Where plagiarism has been identified (presenting the ideas and experiences of others, or generated by artificial intelligence, as your own) applications may be withdrawn and internal candidates may be subject to disciplinary action. Please see our candidate guidance (opens in a new window) for more information on appropriate and inappropriate use.

Selection process details

This vacancy is using Success Profiles (opens in a new window), and will assess your Behaviours and Strengths.

You will be asked to write a 200 word statement on your relevant experience and career history, along with a personal statement of no more than 500 words. You will be assessed on both during sifting. More details about how to apply are listed on the application form.

You will be assessed on strength based questions during your interview.

The Behaviours being assessed at interview are –

• Seeing the bigger picture
• Making effective decisions
• Delivering at Pace

Successful candidates will undergo a criminal record check and the government baseline personnel security standard check.

If you require any reasonable adjustments, please email fcrecruitmentteam@forestryengland.uk.

If you're planning to use AI to support your application, please ensure you've read our guidelines here first.

Read more about our application process and working with us on the Forestry England website.

Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.

Security

Successful candidates must undergo a criminal record check.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.

Diversity and Inclusion

The Civil Service is committed to attract, retain and invest in talent wherever it is found. To learn more please see theCivil Service People Plan (opens in a new window) and the Civil Service Diversity and Inclusion Strategy (opens in a new window).

Apply and further information

This vacancy is part of the Great Place to Work for Veterans (opens in a new window) initiative.The Civil Service welcomes applications from people who have recently left prison or have an unspent conviction. Read more about prison leaver recruitment (opens in new window).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 : FC Recruitment Team
• Email : fcrecruitmentteam@forestryengland.uk

Recruitment team

• Email : fcrecruitmentteam@forestryengland.uk

Further information

Our recruitment process is underpinned by the principle of appointment on the basis of fair and open competition and appointment on merit, as outlined in the Civil Service Commissioners’ Recruitment Principles.If you feel your application has not been treated in accordance with these principles and you wish to make a complaint, you should in the first instance contact FCE by email: englandhr.services@forestryengland.uk. If you are not satisfied with the response you receive, you can contact the Civil Service Commission, which regulates all Civil Service recruitment.

Attachments

Forestry England Job Description - Assistant Area Land Agent (PB4) Opens in new window (pdf, 171kB)