Director of Planning and Regeneration

About the Borough

This special place in South West London between the capital and the country has been a Royal borough longer than anywhere else - it is where the first kings of England were crowned.

Today, it is a vibrant and diverse borough, with a long history and strong cultural and community heritage. Kingston's riverside location, fantastic retail offer, historic market place and church, parks and gardens all make Kingston town centre the vibrant space it is, and each of our district town centres (Surbiton, New Malden, Tolworth and Chessington) have something unique to offer.

Situated in Zone 6, Kingston is among the best-connected town centres in London – with direct train links from Kingston and Surbiton stations to Clapham Junction and London Waterloo, as well as Wimbledon for an interchange with the London Underground and Tramlink.

About the Service and Team

Thank you for your interest in applying to be the next Director of Planning and Regeneration at the Royal Borough of Kingston.

Kingston is a borough with many thriving diverse communities, rich in history and heritage and full of potential for our future. Our vision is to be positive, dedicated and determined in maximising what we can all do in the future whilst embracing the legacy of our past. At the same time, we will remain steadfastly focused on ensuring we do all we can on the day-to-day simple things that people need, and in particular to help our communities through these current challenging times.

We are an open, honest and transparent authority. We want to continue to build on our local relationships and work alongside and enable our communities to continue to support a resilient and thriving borough. This requires keeping the deep respect and cooperation between elected members and council officers to put ourselves in the strongest position to assist them.

At Kingston Council, we are passionate about empowering staff to become the best that they can be and the right person for this role will ensure their teams are well-equipped and motivated to continue to provide quality services for our residents, businesses, partners, voluntary and community sector and other stakeholders.

We are immensely proud of our borough, and we care deeply about our responsibilities. We hope that our new Director of Planning and Regeneration will work with us and steer Kingston into an exciting and thriving future.

We wish you the best of luck with your application.

Matthew Essex,
Executive Director of Place

About the Role and Our Ideal Candidate

There are not many places in London where you can shape one of the capital’s most popular town centres, lead an estate regeneration delivering more than two thousand new homes, take a Local Plan through examination and reimagine three miles of the Thames riverside, all from the same desk. Kingston is one of them.

This is a Royal Borough with real ambition. Cambridge Road Estate is in delivery, with around 2,170 new homes being built in partnership with Vistry. Kingston Town Centre is being reshaped through a programme of public realm improvements, the redevelopment of the ancient market and the arrival of Unilever’s new UK HQ. There is a live partnership with Kingston First, a substantial bid into the GLA's affordable housing programme that opens the door to further estate regeneration, and a riverside that is genuinely one of London's best-kept secrets. The Local Plan is moving towards examination, and the placemaking opportunity across the borough is bigger than the team has yet had the chance to lead on. The Director coming in has the chance to change that.

This is also a borough where planning and regeneration sit together properly. You will lead Development Management, Strategic Planning, Building Control and Enforcement on the planning side, and Placemaking, Economic Development, Business Engagement, Employment and Skills on the regeneration side. The breadth is the point. We want a leader who can hold the technical credibility of planning alongside the creative ambition of place, and who sees the connection between a well-run committee, a confident high street, and a young person finding their first job through one of our employer partnerships.

Because the skills, employment and inclusion side of this role matters as much as the regeneration headline. Working with our university, college and training partners, you will lead the work to build genuine pathways into employment for care leavers, young people with SEND, and others for whom the borough's prosperity has not yet translated into opportunity. It is some of the most rewarding work the role offers.

What sets Kingston apart, though, is not the projects. It is the place. Anyone who joins us will tell you the same thing. This is the most collegiate, cooperative organisation they have worked in. There are no egos, no territories, and no silos. Colleagues across the corporate leadership team work together rather than around each other, and the Director coming in will join a stable, well-aligned departmental management team that has been together for several years and is properly behind this role.

We are looking for an experienced senior planning or place leader, RTPI-qualified or with equivalent professional standing, who brings genuine planning credibility and has either already moved into the placemaking and regeneration space or is ready to do so. You will need to be comfortable working in a committee system, where collaboration and listening matter more than command.

In return, you will join a borough that is proud of itself, in the best possible way. A Royal Borough on the Thames, with one of the best schools systems in the country, a vibrant town centre, a riverside that catches people by surprise, and a council with the confidence to back its ambitions and the maturity to enjoy the work.

Our Offer to You

As an organisation that values and nurtures talent, we’re committed to helping you fulfil your potential and will offer you a supportive, friendly and collaborative environment to grow and develop your career and skills. We’re constantly striving to improve our ways of working so putting your ideas across however big or small; will be fully encouraged and supported by your colleagues and our dynamic and experienced management team.

Employees have access to a wide range of benefits to enable staff to achieve a work life balance, some of which include:

• A generous annual leave entitlement of 32 days, plus bank holidays (pro-rata if part-time working hours apply)
• Enhanced Maternity, Paternity, shared parental, adoption and dependents leave
• Three volunteering days per year in Kingston
• Hybrid working
• Flexible and agile working arrangements using Google Chromebooks
• Learning and development portal offering a range of courses
• Discounts on a range of local shops, restaurants, gyms and leisure centres
• Interest free season ticket loans
• Local Government Pension Scheme
• Bicycle loan facilities and cycle to work scheme
• Electric vehicle leasing scheme
• Confidential health & wellbeing and counselling support

Application Process

For more information and to apply, please visit www.leadingkingston.com

The recruitment for this role is being managed Tile Hill, our trusted recruitment partners.

Apply online outlining what skills, abilities and experience you can bring which makes you an ideal candidate for this role. Please refer to the requirements outlined in the job profile when completing your application.

Additional Information

We are proud to be a diverse and welcoming Borough and we strive to create a workforce which reflects the community we serve, and instil a sense of belonging in our staff. We celebrate and respect differences and appreciate the value of having a diverse workforce, therefore we welcome applications from under represented groups.

To support our workers and their families we offer a range of family friendly, inclusive employment policies, flexible working arrangements, staff engagement forums and inclusive staff networks who help drive our diversity agenda.

We are also proud to be a disability confident employer and guarantee to interview all disabled applicants who meet the minimum essential criteria for a role. As an accredited London Living Wage Employer all our employees are guaranteed the London Living Wage regardless of their length or type of contract.

The UK has a points-based immigration system affecting EU and Non-EU workers and sponsorship requirements. We advise checking the GOV.UK website for right to work guidance. Sponsorship availability varies and is subject to eligibility requirements and budget limitations. As a result, we cannot guarantee sponsorship for all roles and will evaluate sponsorship requests on a case-by-case basis.