Planning Policy for Place Principal Officer

Job Description

Organisation: London Borough of Waltham Forest

Salary: PO4 - PO5 £49,056 - £55,323

Contract Type: Full-time/Permanent

Working hours per week: 36

Application Deadline: 08/09/2026

Proposed Interview Date(s): 22/09/2026

Reference: 2262

About Us:

Bursting with culture, energy, and opportunity, the London Borough of Waltham Forest is a fantastic and exciting place to work.

We are a highly ambitious borough. Driven by culture and the innate creativity of our residents, we have developed new and innovative ways to build our communities. Our Council is relentlessly resident-focused, insight-led, digitally driven and commercially minded; a Council focused on meeting the needs of our existing and future residents.

London Borough of Waltham Forest is one of the Mayor of London’s Good Work Standard employers. This accreditation is a proof of our commitment to creating a healthy, fair and inclusive workplace. This includes fair pay and conditions, workplace well-being, skills and progression and diversity and recruitment.

The Council’s preference is for online application. However, if you have a disability and are unable to complete an online application, please email recruitment@walthamforest.gov.uk so we can arrange an alternative application method.

About the role:

An exciting opportunity has arisen for a Principal Planning Policy Officer in the dynamic, diverse and multi-disciplinary Place and Design Team at Waltham Forest Council. This is a key place-shaping role in a team with a great track record and at the forefront of delivering vibrant, green, safe and accessible neighbourhoods across Waltham Forest.

We are looking for someone creative and energetic with demonstrable planning policy skills – and who is looking to build on those skills to help shape sustainable growth that meets genuine local needs, ensuring that the right infrastructure delivered in the right places, and leading on the delivery of the Council’s innovative Exemplar Design principles and values.

This role will be key to unlocking delivery of new homes, workspace and infrastructure across the borough, the implementation of the new NPPF and new London Plan within Waltham Forest.

The focus of the team, in the near term, is on the implementation of our ambitious adopted Local Plan and Site Allocations, and this role will be key to unlocking delivery of new homes, workspace and infrastructure across the borough. The Officer will also play a key role in the implementation of the new National Planning Policy Framework and the New London Plan within Waltham Forest.

The right candidate will:

• Be interested in strategic and infrastructure planning, in urban design and placemaking, and will have a good understanding of developer contributions. Given the focus on this nationally and locally, experience of housing policy will be advantageous.
• Work well with others and have the ability to communicate ideas and proposals effectively, demonstrating a creative approach to problem solving and to learning new skills.

In this role, you will work in multidisciplinary team, alongside a Principal Developer Contributions Officer, Developer Contributions Support Officer, GIS Officer and Data Quality Officer. The role will report to the Strategic Planning and Infrastructure Lead.

The Place and Design Team

We work to ensure that growth is inclusive, creating a fairer borough and to deliver the new homes and jobs that the borough needs. We are committed to engaging the borough’s diverse communities at all stages of the development cycle to ensure that future development brings the benefits they need. The team work to ensure that all new development is of exemplar quality and is supported by the right infrastructure, build in the right places. We work closely with stakeholders – whether strategic authorities, investors or developers – to make sure that development contributes wider ambitions, enhancing biodiversity, mitigating flood risk, and tackling the Climate Emergency head on.

We work within an inclusive structure that rejects silos, embraces sharing and learning and works flexibly and collaboratively. We have adopted a matrix working approach that assembles the right teams for the right projects, building resilience and skills. We also work collaboratively with other teams across the council, including Development Management, Area Regeneration, Employment, Business and Skills, Culture, Housing, Property, Capital Delivery, Strategy & Design, and Highways.

We have built a reputation as an innovative, positive, proactive team that delivers excellent results with work produced in-house. The recent achievements of the team include adopting our Local Plan and having our Site Allocations Plan pass examination, contributing to award winning buildings and public spaces, developing the Waltham Forest Design Awards, producing high-quality guidance such as the Residential Alterations and Retrofit SPD and the Leyton Mills SPD, as well as rejuvenating our Local Heritage List.

We are a Home Office–licensed sponsor; however, for this specific role we are not able to provide Skilled Worker visa sponsorship. To be considered, you must already hold a form of UK work authorisation that does not require sponsorship.

>> Click here to download the Role Profile <<

Key Responsibilities:

• Assist (PO4) or lead (PO5) in the preparation, review, implementation and monitoring of specific planning policy themes, including the agile supervision of more junior staff where appropriate.
• Support the development of a proactive compliance approach across the Place and Design Team.
• Ensure that the Local Plan is implemented to the highest standard, to meet local needs and create a fairer, more equal borough.
• Ensure high quality communication is maintained internally and externally with officers, elected members, and the general public.
• Provide, at a senior level, specialist expertise and guidance to officers, members, developers, the public and other stakeholders on all aspects of relevant strategic planning policy and practice.
• Support the commissioning of relevant evidence base consultancy projects and review and analyse the outputs.
• Supervisory Responsibilities:
• Project supervision of officers as necessary to support matrix management approach to project work across the service
• Occasional supervision of staff or consultants temporarily assigned to the team or on specific projects.
• Budget Responsibilities:
• PO4: None
• PO5: Project budgets as required to ensure that any external commissions are within budget and delivered to the programme

Qualifications and Requirements:

• Degree in town planning or related subject and eligibility or membership of the Royal Town Planning Institute.
• Significant experience, knowledge and understanding of the National Planning Policy Framework and the process of preparing a Local Plan, preparation of supplementary planning documents, review, and monitoring of Local Plan policy.
• Significant experience of developing and writing planning policy within a local authority, voluntary or private-sector context.
• Experience of dealing with developers, stakeholders, elected members and the general public at all levels confidently, sensitively and diplomatically, particularly in a customer focused environment.
• Experience of working in a Planning Department including planning policy work or related experience from working in another part of the development industry.
• Experience of undertaking public consultation and engagement events on planning policy and other planning projects.
• Good understanding of how services are provided in a local government context and political awareness and the issues facing local government.
• Experience of specialist software for the production of planning policy documents, and other related specialist database software and systems and guidance, advanced user of Microsoft Office.
• Experience of preparing significant reports, planning information work and statistical and research work.
• Ability to communicate effectively using a wide variety of media and methodologies, including written, oral, and visual means of communication and experience of providing information and advice to key decision makers, such as elected members and service directors.
• Highly numerate, with excellent analytical and problem-solving skills.
• Well-developed interpersonal, persuasion and negotiating skills.
• Ability to see the bigger picture as well as attend to detail.
• Self-motivated, enthusiastic, and able to work with minimal supervision.
• Accustomed to managing conflicting deadlines and a demanding workload.
• Demonstrable commitment to equal opportunities and equality in employment and service delivery

PO5 (in addition to the above)

• Substantial relevant experience of leading on the development and writing of planning policy within a local authority, voluntary or private-sector context.
• Substantial experience of providing specific policy advice and related planning advice to officers, members, planning applicants and the public.
• Good experience of /ability to provide evidence for local plan examinations and other appeals, hearings, or public inquiries.
• Sensitivity, persuasiveness, negotiation and assertiveness skills to communicate with diverse audiences in emotive circumstances, including excellent political awareness in problem solving and decision making.

Terms and conditions:

The below terms and conditions apply to this role:

• Satisfactory employment references and CIFAS identity checks;
• Satisfactory declaration of interest;
• As a public authority, we must ensure that members of staff in public-facing roles are able to speak fluent English. This means that they must have a command of spoken English, with confidence and accuracy, sufficient for the effective performance of their role. This requirement does not refer to any particular English language qualifications, regional or international accents, dialects, speech impediments or the tone of conversations. It does not require staff to speak only in English.
• Working conditions: hybrid role with a mix of office based work and home working.

How to Apply:

Interested candidates are invited to submit their applications online by pressing the ‘Apply’ button below. This includes a supporting statement that outlines to us how your skills and experience make you a good candidate for this vacancy.

We reserve the right to close this vacancy early if we receive sufficient applications for the role. Therefore, if you are interested, please submit your application as early as possible.

Equal Opportunity Employer:

Waltham Forest is a diverse borough where diversity is valued and is integral to both, service delivery and employment of its staff. The Council is proud of its rich mix of communities and as the largest employer in the area, it works hard to respond to the changing needs of its population. We use our statutory duties on race, gender and disability equality and best practice in respect of age, faith and sexual orientation to ensure equality of opportunity in the workplace. The Council is committed to meeting its 4 equality objectives: - Promoting equality of opportunity - Opposing all forms of discrimination, intolerance and disadvantage - Ensuring our workforce reflects the diverse communities of Waltham Forest at all levels. - Providing fair, appropriate, accessible and excellent Services to all. Respecting Diversity is a core Council value.

To support the above and reduce the risk of bias in its recruitment activities, the council is operating an anonymous shortlisting process, which hides personal information that can identify individuals until their application has been considered for shortlisting. The council also operates a scheme whereby, for jobs graded up to and including scale SO2, internal candidates are considered first. This includes those candidates who self-identify as having a disability for the purposes of the Disability Confident scheme. For more information, please refer to our recruitment and selection policy.

We are keen to support employees to balance their working life with other commitments. Therefore, wherever possible, we will consider working arrangements that suit an individual's personal circumstances whilst still meeting the needs of the Council. If you would like to discuss the possible flexible working options that might be applicable to this role, please contact the person named below or feel free to discuss this during your interview.

For more information on the benefits of working for the Council, please visit https://www.walthamforest.gov.uk/jobs-and-training/find-jobs-and-other-…;

Contact Information:

If you have any questions about this vacancy or the application process, please contact Marcin ManikowskiHead of Strategic Planning and Infrastructure, at marcin.manikowski@walthamforest.gov.uk.

If you have any technical issues when trying to apply for this post, please contact our Recruitment Team via email at recruitment@walthamforest.gov.uk.

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