Development Planning Manager

Exciting opportunity alert! Are you ready to lead, manage, and coach a skilled Development Planning Team? Join us at Thames Water to play a crucial role in protecting our resources and shaping future development across our catchment areas. Your primary focus will be reviewing and commenting on significant planning applications, setting specific planning conditions, and ensuring timely asset improvements to support growth. In this role, you will be at the forefront of providing precise responses to Local Plans and planning applications, collaborating closely with Planning Authorities and our Town Planning Team. Your influence will extend to shaping planning policy and future development locations in alignment with the National Planning Policy Framework. Ready to make a significant impact and drive strategic planning decisions? Join us at Thames Water and be a part of shaping a sustainable future. What you’ll be doing as a Development Planning Manager Build and lead a high-performing team, ensuring they have the appropriate processes, tools, knowledge, and skills to manage the third-party planning processing line with defined SLAs. Ensuring we have an up-to-date library of appropriately worded and fit-for-purpose planning conditions. Identifying and removing barriers to growth through proactive engagement with the planning system, developers and other internal stakeholders. Support the delivery of an enhanced development planning and tracking capability. Engaging proactively with Local Authorities and Town Planning to ensure TW proactively manages and influences decisions regarding major development sites across all catchment areas. Facilitating the odour impact assessment process to support potential STW enhancements to accommodate new developments in line with planning policy and timeframes. Tracking the status of constrained development to ensure alignment of associated hydraulic network modelling studies required to facilitate the timely delivery of any network reinforcement. Working closely with Specialist Planners to ensure the timely submission of hydraulic modelling briefs in line with development timelines. Ensuring that Thames Water has a fit-for-purpose process for impact assessment and response to all DCO applications, including the subsequent tracking and facilitation of all application responses to mitigate risks to the business. Hybrid – Maple Lodge Sewage Treatment Works: you will be required to attend sites and office as the business requires you to. 36 hours a week, Monday through Friday. What you should bring to the role Degree or substantial experience in a field related to urban planning, with particular expertise in the National Planning Policy Framework, is desirable. Experience working within the water industry or other heavily regulated utility organisation Demonstrable experience in people management and leadership. Demonstrable knowledge of the planning system. Highly developed communication skills – written and verbal. Competent in the use of MS Office, Microsoft 365, GIS and other company CRM systems. Proven senior stakeholder engagement experience. Experience of operating at all levels with the ability to also be ‘hands-on.’ Confident presentation skills to wide-ranging audiences. What’s in it for you? This role will be paying between £44,000 to £55,000 per annum. 26 days holiday per year increasing to 30 with the length of service. (Plus bank holidays) Contributory pension – Defined Contribution - Maximum of 12% -2x employee contribution. Personal Medical Assessments – Open to all once a year. Wider benefits scheme including our benefits hub, which is packed full of offers and information to save you money and support your wellbeing. Who are we? At Thames Water, our purpose is crystal clear - to deliver life’s essential service so our customers, communities and planet can thrive. Water is life’s great leveller. Every living thing needs it, every single day. From people to plants, birds to bees, farms to factories, we all need it to thrive, and we’re committed to taking care of it for us all. But keeping water flowing is becoming harder. From scorching summers to wetter winters, extreme weather affects everything from our pipes to our local rivers. We need to keep millions more kettles boiling, public services operating, washing machines spinning, showers running and more, so every drop is more precious than ever. Are you ready to play your part? Working at Thames Wate r At Thames Water, we recognise that people are at the heart of our business. To help us succeed in providing life's essential service, we need a range of skills and capabilities, representative of society throughout our business. We seek to attract and retain a cultural mix of people who can offer different but complementary attitudes, values, talents, and knowledge. We understand the importance of appreciating and harnessing the unique skills, experiences, backgrounds, and differences that each individual brings. Our over-arching diversity and inclusion aim is to ensure Thames Water is a diverse and inclusive great place to work. We encourage applications from everyone and offer extra support for those who need it throughout the recruitment process. Find out more about working at Thames Water. When a crisis happens, we all rally around to support our customers. As part of Team Thames, you’ll have the opportunity to sign up to support our customers on the frontline as an ambassador. Full training will be given for what is undoubtedly an incredibly rewarding experience. It’s also a great opportunity to learn more about our business, meet colleagues and earn some extra money along the way. Disclaimer: due to the high volume of applications we receive, we may close the advert earlier than the advertised date, so we encourage you to apply as soon as possible to avoid disappointment.