Finance Business Partner

Job summary

We are MHCLG

Are you looking for a role where your financial skills and insight directly shape policy and delivery?
Do you have the confidence to challenge, support and influence decision-makers?
If so, we have an exciting opportunity for you to join our team at the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) and we’d love to hear from you!

MHCLG Finance is an exciting and varied place to work. We work closely with teams across thedepartment, including policy and finance, and externally, such as HMT, to develop government policy onissues ranging from the government’s local growth agenda, building more homes, and tackling homelessness and rough sleeping. We ensure policies are value for money, deliverable and provide analysis, translate data and offer financial advice to provide insight. We are friendly teams who prioritise development and wellbeing with ample chance for stretch in these roles. Successful candidates will have access to extensive professional development resources as part of the Government Finance Community, including career development. support We are constantly seeking to improve how we work and welcome innovation. We are looking forward to hiring people with a range of backgrounds and perspectives to bring new expertise and fresh thinking.

Job description

The post holder will be supporting a range of Departmental priorities in policy areas as a Finance Business Partner (FBP) within our Finance & Value: Communities, Resilience, Growth and Corporate team. This team leads on supporting delivery of the local government, growth and communities agenda to revive the fortunes of overlooked parts of the country. It also supports delivery of integration programmes, resilience and emergencies, building safety, as well as directly supporting the Chief Finance Officer and the critical role of our corporate functions.The main responsibilities include, but are not limited to:

• Building strong relationships through being confident and credible with stakeholders to ensure you become a trusted advisor, ensuring principles such as value for money and wider objectives are considered effectively, during for example policy development and fiscal events.
• Working closely with central strategy, policy, and finance colleagues across the department to bring together complex information on the financial implications of policy options, demonstrating a willingness to be a team player. Providing clear financial advice, analysis and challenge to support effective decision-making across the Department, including consideration of overarching principles.
• Liaise with a diverse range of stakeholders to help develop high quality business cases for new funding schemes, providing expert advice for business cases on Green Book and Managing Public Money principles.
• Demonstrating strong communications skills and supporting directorates in maintaining an understanding of their budgeting position whilst producing robust forecasts, providing advice and support to colleagues whilst ensuring issues are identified and correctly dealt with as required.
• Ensure the financial systems containing forecasts and working budgets are kept up to date with clear audit trails and running the necessary financial reports, identifying trends and providing insight to senior stakeholders. Independently producing high quality outputs at pace, being flexible to emerging priorities and pressures, with a strong attention to detail then being able to confidently and effectively present this information.

Person specification

• Candidates will have a strong problem solving, collaboration and communication skills with the ability to deliver at pace whilst effectively managing competing priorities. Prior experience working in a business partnering or strategic finance role is desirable but not essential.
• We are also interested in hearing from candidates from a policy background who are willing to develop their finance skills.
• Strengths we are looking for are: Providing insight and strategic understanding to ensure financial objectives are embedded into the decision-making process. Analysing and interpreting numerical information and communicating it clearly, making the connection with real-world outcomes and political needs.
• The ability to build a network across MHCLG and other government departments that support collaborative working in order to deliver high quality outputs, for example on excel, that can be used to present to senior stakeholders.
• Demonstrating the confidence, composure and credibility needed to challenge and influence senior stakeholders in a considered and professional manner, influencing them effectively when required.
• Recognising change as an opportunity to deliver efficiency and innovation acting as an agent for change when you identify the chance to protect, drive and add value. Independently work at pace to tight deadlines – you will be responsible for delivering multiple pieces of work simultaneously, needing to be proactive in managing your workload.

• Be a qualified accountant or have a demonstrable willingness to qualify, ideally through actively studying for an accountancy qualification (an accountancy allowance is available to successful CCAB qualified candidates: CIMA, CIPFA, ACCA, ICAEW, ICAS, ICAI).

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £45,076, Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government contributes £13,058 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

Application and Selection
The application process will be split into 2 stages, testing the following Success Profiles:

Behaviours , Experience , Strengths , Technical

Stage 1: Sift

• Experience (lead sift): Describe how your experience would make you an effective Finance Business Partner?
• Behaviour: Communicating and Influencing- How would you ensure your policy teams provided accurate forecasts?
• Behaviour: Working Together: How do you ensure effective communication within a team?
• Behaviour: Delivering at Pace: How would you manage and meet competing deadlines?

There is a 250-word limit per question.

When writing your application, remember:

• 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 you write the second answer as if you had not written the first (and so on!)

Most of our campaigns utilise multiple assessors and so it is possible that each of your answers would be viewed by different assessors.

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 interview.

If you run into any technical problems when applying through Be Applied (for example, trouble logging in or submitting your application), their support team can help. Please contact them at hello@beapplied.com.

Stage 2: Interview

• Behaviours: Communicating and Influencing, Working Together, Delivering at Pace
• Experience: Experience questions will be based around the essential skills and criteria as listed in the job description.
• Technical: Technical questions will be based around the essential skills and criteria as listed in the job description.

• Strengths: The strength-based questions will require natural responses from the candidates.

Candidates will be asked complete a data analysis exercise during the interview. Further details will be provided on invitation to interview.

Sift and Interview Dates

Sifting is envisaged to take place the week commencing 03/04/2026.

How We Recruit

Find out more about our recruitment processes here.

• Applying

• Sifting

• Interview

• Interview Results & Feedback

• Reserve List

• Near Miss

• Civil Service Grades

• We are a DCS, RIS & GPTWV employer

• Reasonable Adjustments

How to Apply

Find out everything you need to know before applying here.

You must review the following information from the MHCLG Career's Site before submitting your application. This step is essential to ensure your eligibility for the role and that your application is completed correctly.

• Security Clearance Requirements

• Civil Service Nationality Requirements

• Right to Work

• Artificial Intelligence

• Civil Service Code and Recruitment Principles

• CV Declaration

• Sponsorships

• Salary and Grade

• Existing Civil Servants

• Conflict of Interest

• Location and Flexible Working

• Fixed Term Contracts

• Internal Fraud Database - Internal Fraud Register

• Appeals and Complaints

• Conflict of Interest

Security Clearance Requirements

National Office: + CTC

London Office: + CTC

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

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.

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

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 : Ryan Whitlock
• Email : ryan.whitlock@communities.gov.uk

Recruitment team

• Email : recruitment@communities.gov.uk

Further information

If you are unsure about any part of the process or require additional information about the post to enable you to progress your application, you should speak to the Resourcing team - recruitment@communities.gov.uk. Candidates can appeal at any stage of the recruitment process if they believe there has been:

a procedural irregularity

an infringement of the Civil Service equal opportunities policy

exceptional circumstances which were not notified to the interview panel which might have affected performance on the day.

It is important to note that these are appeals about the process not the decision. In the first instance, an appeal should be directed to the MHCLG Resourcing Hub at recruitment@communities.gov.uk.

If the MHCLG Resourcing Hub is unable to satisfactorily resolve your complaint, you may contact put your complaint in writing to the Civil Service Commission, Room G8,1 Horse Guards Road, London, SW1A 2HQ or by email to: info@csc.gov.uk

Attachments

1a. MHCLG Candidate Pack Opens in new window (pdf, 834kB)1b. Candidate Guidance Opens in new window (pdf, 355kB)1c. Success Profiles Candidate information Opens in new window (pdf, 936kB)Darlington Economic Campus Career Pathways Opens in new window (pdf, 452kB)