tdm recruitment
Head of Planning
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Our client
Our client is a well-established strategic land business operating across Cambridgeshire and the wider East of England, promoting sites through the planning system for residential and mixed-use development. With a strong pipeline of live projects and further growth planned, they are looking to strengthen their planning capability with the appointment of a Senior Planning Manager / Head of Planning.
The role
This is a senior, high-impact position responsible for leading the planning strategy across a portfolio of strategic land sites, from initial site identification through to allocation and permission. You will work closely with the land, technical, and commercial teams, as well as external consultants, landowners, and local authorities, to bring sites successfully through the planning process.
Key responsibilities
- Leading and managing the planning strategy for a portfolio of strategic land promotion sites across Cambridgeshire and neighbouring counties
- Instructing, briefing, and managing multi-disciplinary consultant teams (planning, highways, ecology, landscape, heritage)
- Building and maintaining relationships with local planning authorities, elected members, and key stakeholders
- Leading engagement on Local Plan reviews and call for sites submissions, ensuring sites are well positioned for allocation
- Preparing and reviewing planning applications, appeals, and representations
- Providing planning input into land acquisition appraisals and site viability assessments
- Presenting at public consultations, committee meetings, and stakeholder engagement events
- Mentoring and supporting junior planning staff as the team grows
- Reporting on planning progress, risk, and strategy to the senior leadership team
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Experience and skills required
- RTPI qualified (or equivalent significant experience) with a degree in Town Planning or related discipline
- Strong track record in strategic land, promotion, or major residential-led development planning, ideally gained within a land promoter, housebuilder, developer, or planning consultancy
- Demonstrable experience of taking sites through Local Plan processes and securing allocations
- Experience managing planning applications and appeals for large-scale residential or mixed-use schemes
- Strong understanding of the planning system in Cambridgeshire and the East of England highly advantageous
- Confident, credible communicator able to build relationships with landowners, local authorities, and members
- Commercially minded, with an understanding of land value and development viability
- Proven ability to manage and instruct external consultant teams
- Leadership experience or the ambition to build and develop a planning function
- Full UK driving licence
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A genuine opportunity to shape and lead the planning function within a growing strategic land business, with real autonomy, a strong pipeline of live sites, and a clear route to further progression as the business expands.
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