About us at Hounslow We’d love you to join us at the London Borough of Hounslow! Our people are deeply committed to providing excellent services to our residents, doing all we can to make lives as good as they can be. We are an outstanding council, serving an outstanding borough. With brilliant, visionary leadership, a dynamic Cabinet and a can-do culture, we’ve built strong partnerships which have transformed how we serve one of London’s most diverse boroughs. Hounslow is the world in one place and full of potential. We are stepping up for our residents like never before. About our Commitment to Diversity and Inclusion We live by five core values: Lead with Heart, Do New, Pass on the Power, Harness the Mix and Be a Rock. All our work has equality, diversity and inclusion at its very heart, best articulated in “Harness the Mix”. It's about breaking down barriers between our parts and people and unlocking the problem-solving power of our amazing mix of minds. We serve a diverse community, we have a diverse workforce and we are committed to being an inclusive employer. We work hard to create representation across our workforce and leadership community, we have thriving employee network groups and our learning and development programmes help us lead, model and breathe ways of working that eliminate inequality, inequity, injustice and bias. As part of this and under our commitments as a Disability Confident Employer, we make reasonable adjustments to accommodate our candidates. There’s space for you to tell us what you need within our application form. Our Benefits If you join us, you’ll have access to a range of employee benefits. Read more about these here. About The Role A Technical Support Officer plays a crucial role in delivering exceptional service across all development proposals within the borough, from major projects to individual householder planning applications. The officer will take the lead in validating planning applications and provide administrative support in various planning areas, including applications, enforcement cases, and appeals. They will also offer expert advice to applicants, agents, residents, and colleagues on the development process. This role requires candidates with excellent communication skills, strong technical ability to adopt and efficiently utilize IT systems, and the capacity to progress tasks quickly with minimal supervision. The position would suit candidates passionate about the built environment, with opportunities for support and mentoring to advance within the field. About The Team You’ll Be Working In Hounslow are looking for a Technical Support Officer to join their award-winning Development Management Team. The team are currently working on a wealth of planning applications critical to the social and economic wellbeing of the borough. We have high housing targets to achieve, new schools to place children in and need to create opportunities for employers who want to be in our well located borough. This must be balanced against acting on the boroughs Climate Emergency and with Green Belt, listed buildings, conservation areas and River Thames frontage that need protecting. All this needs to be delivered while playing a crucial supporting role in delivering the boroughs partnerships and values. About You •Able to carry a caseload of applications and validate in accordance with set deadlines and quality indicators. Able to work flexibly in a changing environment responding quickly to conflicting workloads and changing priorities. Able to identify the need for guidance from more senior staff. •Able to communicate in a sensitive and effective manner both orally and in writing and able to deal effectively with Members, the public, officers in other departments and outside organisations. •Able to utilise IT systems to deliver the planning system and its administrative functions. •Ability to maintain an up to date technical knowledge of planning related legislation, principles and practice. If the points below resonate with you, we’d love you to put in an application: •A passion for the built environment and how residents experience and interact with the environment around them. •Enthusiasm for working within a team that seeks to find creative and pragmatic solutions to problems facing the borough. •A desire to proactively engage with officers, Councillors, residents and developers to negotiation best outcomes on schemes. •Devotion to tackling equalities where they exist within both the workplace and the borough in general. Read more about the work you’ll be doing in the Role Profile. When Interviews Will Be Held And Who To Contact The key information you need about the role should be in the role profile, but if you have any further questions about the role, please contact: Email: [email protected] Telephone: 0208 583 6623 Closing date: 27 October 2024 Interviews for this job will be held during week commencing 4th November 2024. To apply, please click “Apply Now”.