Strategy Advisor/Planning Policy Advisor

Job summary

This is a fantastic time to join the Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) as we drive forward the boldest transformation of the planning system since 1947.

We are bringing forward ambitious and wide-ranging planning reforms following the publication of the new National Planning Policy Framework in December 2024. Delivering and supporting the implementation of these and more wide-ranging planning reforms in 2025 and 2026 is a top priority for MHCLG and the Government.

This will be a chance to play a critical role at the heart of an ambitious planning reform agenda.

We are looking for one EO Strategy Advisor to join the Planning Strategy Team, and one EO Policy Advisor to join the Planning Policy Team with a remit that extends across the Planning Directorate and beyond.

These are strategic roles at the heart of planning reform, offering the opportunity to manage high-profile cross-cutting commissions, contribute to our stakeholder engagement function, and support the briefing of Ministers and senior officials.

The successful candidates will work closely with policy teams across the Planning Directorate, helping us to maintain strong strategic oversight of our reform agenda and ensure a joined-up approach. These roles provide an excellent opportunity to build your commissioning, administrative, briefing & drafting and stakeholder engagement skills. As a team we are also keen to support colleagues with a desire to gain specific policy experience within Planning.

We are a supportive and friendly team made up of a mix of professional Planners and generalist civil servants. Though our work can be fast-paced, you’ll find that our team is always willing to work flexibly to support one another. If you are ready to take on a role that combines strategic thinking, stakeholder management and high-profile briefings then we would love to hear from you.

Job description

EO Strategy Advisor responsibilities

• Supporting with the management of cross-cutting commissions that reach all areas of Planning policy. You will support the Planning Strategy team to coordinate input into commissions from other government departments and internal MHCLG teams on Planning reform. We take a proactive approach to commissioning, meaning you will develop a hub of knowledge about Planning policy to help us to proactively respond to commissions ourselves where possible and take some of the burden off individual policy teams.
• Supporting with our briefing and correspondence function as part of our Planning Strategic Briefing team. You will support one of the core functions of team, by assisting on the drafting and coordination of high-profile ministerial briefings. We manage a rota system for supporting our core Planning Strategic Briefing team, so that all junior members of staff get exposure to this high-profile work.
• Assisting with strategic communications and stakeholder engagement on cross-cutting Planning policy areas. You will support the team on ensuring Planning policy is communicated clearly to external stakeholders and local authorities. Most notably, since the publication of the NPPF consultation in December 2024, we will be hosting a series of in-person and online events, for which the successful candidate will have the opportunity to support on logistical arrangements and with maintaining strategic oversight across all the events.
• Maintaining internal communications channels within the Planning Directorate, including weekly update emails. You will ensure the wider Directorate is joined-up and aware of all the major updates across the fast-paced world of Planning reform.
• Providing administrative and flexible support to the Planning Strategy Team. You will support with some of our team governance and SharePoint management. Given the fast-paced nature of the work of the Planning Strategy Team, we also ask that team members are on hand to offer flexible support when key priority work areas come in.

EO Planning Policy Advisor responsibilities

• upport delivery of the revised National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) by contributing to the successful roll-out of reforms following the December 2025 consultation—intended as the most significant update since 2012—designed to accelerate housebuilding, drive economic growth, and uphold sustainable development principles. You will play a key role in programme governance by managing agendas for senior boards, consolidating and disseminating stakeholder feedback, and ensuring conditions for cross-government agreement are met. Alongside this, you will help lead the Department’s adoption of AI by piloting tools to evaluate, analyse, and respond to consultation outputs, embedding technology to improve efficiency, insight, and future policy development.

• Assist in developing town-centre planning policy, ensuring national planning policy protects the core principles of sustainable development while delivering the government’s ambitions for housing and economic growth. This includes drafting policy text, building the evidence base for proposed changes, and coordinating and prioritising inputs from the sector and other government departments. You will support engagement with key stakeholders including local authorities, industry bodies, and Whitehall partners you’ll secure consensus and drive effective implementation—making a tangible impact on how our towns evolve to meet economic and social challenges.

• Take a leading role in further planning updates by helping to manage the wider changes required to planning documents such as Planning Practice Guidance. You’ll work across the Department and Whitehall to review and synthesise extensive existing material, ensuring it is streamlined, clear, and fully aligned with the new NPPF. This undertaking that will shape how planning policy is interpreted and applied nationwide—requiring collaboration, attention to detail, and strategic thinking to deliver guidance that is accessible, authoritative, and fit for the future.

• Play a key role in supporting the day to day work of Ministers by producing clear, accurate and timely briefings, talking points and lines that distil complex policy issues across the NPPF and town-centre portfolio into actionable advice. You’ll be trusted to manage high-profile ministerial, stakeholder and parliamentary correspondence, ensuring responses are precise and meet Civil Service standards for tone, governance and responsiveness. This is a fast-paced, collaborative role where you’ll work across teams to coordinate input and maintain coherence in policy lines—giving you a front-row seat to the decision-making process and the opportunity to influence outcomes at the highest level.

Person specification

Strong candidates will demonstrate competency across the following criteria:

• Strategic thinking skills, and an understanding of how the work of your team aligns with wider government objective.
• An ability to communicate clearly in writing, verbally and through visual means, with a particular focus on being able to synthesise complex information into clear key messages for internal and external facing audiences
• Strong team working skills and an ability to maintain good working-relationships with a wide range of teams
• Ability to manage multiple priorities and deliver to tight deadlines in a complex environment.
• Self-motivated and comfortable adapting to change, with resilience in a fast-paced setting.
• Knowledge of the commissioning process and an understanding of how this impacts policy teams
• Good organisational skills, and a strong understanding of all the core Microsoft products (Excel, PowerPoint, Word)
• Experience in a strategy or policy environment preferred but not essential

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £28,622, Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government contributes £8,291 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

Stage 1: Sift

• Behaviour: Communicating and Influencing (Lead Behaviour)
• Behaviour: Seeing The Big Picture
• Behaviour: Delivering at Pace

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.

Stage 2: Interview

• Behaviours: Seeing The Big Picture, Communicating and Influencing, Delivering at Pace
• Experience: Experience 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.

Sift and Interview Dates

Sifting is envisaged to take place the week commencing 12/02/2026

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

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 : Lucy Downer
• Email : Lucy.Downer@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