Property Portfolio & Governance Manager

Job summary

Do you have substantial experience in property, estates, governance or portfolio management?
Are you skilled in building strong relationships and engaging effectively with stakeholders?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!
The Property Team are a small team who work closely together to successfully manage a range of different streams of work. It is a multi disciplinary, multi-site team with a focus on delivering at pace, strong stakeholder engagement, and an ability to turn the Department’s vision into practice.

The Department has embarked on an ambitious Property Strategy, including the closure of six offices, the expansion of its second headquarters in Wolverhampton, and the relocation of its London office. This presents an exciting opportunity to join the team at a pivotal moment, contributing to a significant and challenging programme of work that will shape the future of the Department’s estate.

As Property Portfolio & Governance Manager, you will ensure the MHCLG property portfolio is actively and effectively managed to deliver MHCLG’s developing Property Strategy. This role requires a strong customer focus, with the ability to build effective and productive relationships at all levels within the organisation, its ALBs and Stakeholder organisations. The role requires a focus on outcomes, a strong organisational capability, and the ability to balance competing priorities. The successful candidate must be able to deliver to challenging deadlines while maintaining quality, ensuring processes are continually improved to enhance efficiency and assurance and have the ability to work effectively within a team, seeking collaborative solutions and a focus on building relationships in the development of an effective performance-based culture.

Job description

• Managing, triaging and responding to all FOIs, PQs and other correspondence involving Secretary of State sealed land. Leading on complex casework to ensure strategic oversight, risk management and evidence-based decision-making in support of the MHCLG Property portfolio.
• Ensuring responses to correspondence and casework align with legal, regulatory and departmental priorities, providing clear advice and assurance to senior leaders.
• Developing, maintaining and overseeing governance and assurance processes for property activity, ensuring compliance with GovS 004 standards and related frameworks.
• Assisting in the management of MHCLG occupation agreements through engagement with clients and key stakeholders, including MHCLG ALBs, and instructing the Government Property Agency (GPA) where required.
• Developing, maintaining and analysing property data and records to support the MHCLG Property Strategy, portfolio plan and wider effective decision-making. Ensuring accuracy and data integrity across MHCLG Property systems including InSite and internal Property Strategy files.
• Producing strategic insight, trend analysis and reporting on Property Strategy matters, including FTE data, to inform decision-making and improve portfolio performance.
• Supporting MHCLG Property’s reporting commitments, including Greening Government Commitments and net-zero objectives, through the collection and maintenance of estate energy consumption and sustainability data, ensuring property decisions consider energy efficiency, environmental impact and long-term sustainability.
• Undertaking administrative and governance support activities, including leading secretariat functions for Property Strategy meetings, producing high-quality agendas, documentation, minutes and action tracking, raising purchase orders, and maintaining internal strategy plans and documents.

Person specification

• Attained, or working towards; Recognised property qualification (IWFM, AssocRICS, MRICS etc)
• Experience working within property portfolio management
• Must demonstrate strong experience in property, estates, governance or portfolio management, with the ability to manage complex casework and provide clear, evidence-based advice to senior stakeholders.
• Should possess excellent stakeholder engagement and relationship management skills, with experience working across teams and with external partners to deliver shared objectives.
• Should be highly organised with strong analytical and reporting capability, able to manage competing priorities, produce strategic insight and support effective decision-making.
• Knowledge of assurance frameworks and/or governance requirements
• Experience managing property-related data systems (such as InSite or similar asset management platforms) and producing portfolio performance or sustainability reporting.
• Ability to work effectively within a team, seeking collaborative solutions and a focus on building relationships in the development of an effective performance-based culture.

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £41,890, Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government contributes £12,135 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.At MHCLG we offer many benefits that range from tailored career pathways and flexible working to MyLifestyle Childcare Voucher and Cycle to Work Schemes. For more information, please click here.

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

Please ensure your CV does not contain any personally identifiable information.

Note: We do not consider direct CV applications. All applications must be submitted via the provided application link.

Important: Your CV and Cover Letter must be merged into a single document before uploading.

Stage 1: Sift (CV & Cover Letter)

Experience:

In your CV (of no more than 2 pages) and covering letter (500 words max.), please include:

A. why you are interested in the role; B. how you meet the essential skills and experience required

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

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: Seeing The Big Picture, Changing and Improving, Communicating and Influencing, Delivering at Pace

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

Sift and Interview Dates

Sifting is envisaged to take place 09/03/2026

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:

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

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 : Laura Hawkins
• Email : laura.hawkins@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)