Job Details:
Salary range: £54,684 – £57,726 per annum
Work location: Westminster City Hall, 64 Victoria Street, SW1E 6QP
Hours per week: 36
Contract type: Temporary up to 12 months
Closing date: 6 December 2024
Contact details for an informal discussion: Thomas Burke, Head of Design, Conservation & Sustainability via email on TBURKE@WESTMINSTER.GOV.UK
About Us:
THE EXTRAORDINARY STORY OF SERENA’S VISION
Regeneration, Economy & Planning in Westminster City Council is a world of extraordinary stories. Where innovative and open-minded people bring everything to the cause. Even expertise from surprising places.
Take Serena. She is an absolute force of nature at the heart of our Church Street regeneration. And she puts the residents first in everything. Serena’s vision is clear. Regeneration isn’t just about bricks and concrete. It’s about communities. It’s about the environment. It’s about the lives of people and how they feel about where they call home. Serena is their advocate, making sure residents’ voices aren’t just heard, but drive the changes we’re making. The future is safe in her hands.
Please view the extraordinary story of Serena’s Vision here .
The Role:
As Principle Whole Life Carbon Officer - Town Planning, you can make your own powerful contribution to a vital challenge: decarbonising the built environment. This one-of-a-kind role offers you a unique opportunity to help lead the way on delivering innovative action to address the climate emergency. At Westminster, we believe Local Authorities are the gatekeepers to reducing whole life carbon (WLC) emissions. From embodied carbon generated through manufacturing, transport and construction, through to operational carbon emitted through power and heat, most of Westminster’s emissions are associated with buildings. So we recognise that the planning process must be used to accelerate carbon reduction.
In a nutshell, the Principle Whole Life Carbon Officer will be one of the most impactful climate-related roles in the sector. You will join us at a time of ambitious change. To demonstrate leadership in reducing WLC, we have led the development of a new digital platform. Planning Application Carbon Evaluation and Reduction (PACER) is owned by SME tech company Preoptima. When it comes to the planning review process, PACER will significantly boost the efficiency and level of expertise with the Council. Our goal is to create a blueprint for other Local Authorities to embed and enforce policy. Ultimately, this will lead to a ‘new normal’ in which carbon is quantified and monitored more accurately and consistently across UK cities.
Your first-of-its-kind role will pioneer approaches to drive carbon reductions across Westminster – and, consequently, nationwide. We’ll look to you to lead the technical development of PACER and launch the platform. You’ll develop and embed associated policy, and review cases to assist Westminster on our trajectory to net zero. Here, you’ll discover a working environment with ambition and momentum. We are all committed to tackling the climate emergency. You’ll be instrumental in establishing a pathway to radical reduction of WLC in the built environment. The innovation you deliver will not only substantially relieve the planning system, but also meaningfully generate data for future climate reduction and mitigation policies.
Please refer to the Job Description for more information.
About You:
To make the biggest possible impact in the duration of your one-year contract, you’ll need to be up to speed on all the latest industry guidance and developments. Working knowledge of the planning process is important. Your technical knowledge of whole life carbon assessments will ideally be backed up with a track record of experience, which may include retrofitting buildings and undertaking carbon options appraisals. Preferably, your experience will include using or developing digital tools. Knowledge of datasets and carbon conversion factors is also important in this role.
We’ll expect you to have been active in promoting action on climate change, net zero or environmental sustainability. A champion of innovation in this field, you have the ability to collaborate, learn from experience and share your learning with others. This role will involve a significant level of engagement with stakeholders both across and beyond the Council, so excellent communication skills – both in person and in writing - are essential. You’ll also need good critical thinking and analytical skills.
The Council is committed to achieving diverse shortlists to support our desire to increase the number of staff from underrepresented groups in our workforce. We especially encourage applications from a Global Majority (GM), people who are Black, Asian, Brown, dual-heritage, indigenous to the global south, and or have been racialised as 'ethnic minorities' (formally known as B.A.M.E, Black, Asian and multiple ethnic) background and, while the role is open to all applicants, we will utilise the positive action provisions of the Equality Act 2010 to appoint a candidate from a global majority background where there is a choice between two candidates of equal merit. If you are from a Global Majority background you can self-declare this to the hiring manager as part of our positive action commitments.
What We Offer:
Westminster is an amazing place. We are home to more than 200,000 residents from all backgrounds, over 50,000 vibrant and vital businesses and three-quarters-of-a-million people work in Westminster. Westminster City Council’s strategy is to work towards a Fairer Westminster. A Fairer Westminster is one in which our communities are at the heart of our decision-making and help to determine the city’s future. By working directly with our communities and other partners, we can build a more inclusive city that celebrates our diverse communities, and where residents, workers and visitors from all backgrounds will feel welcome and safe.
At Westminster City Council, we pride ourselves on being an inclusive workplace and employer of choice. We encourage and welcome applications from people from all backgrounds and aim to have a workforce that, at all levels, represents the communities we serve. We champion equality, diversity, inclusion and wellbeing and aim to create a workplace where everyone feels valued, has a sense of belonging and is empowered to be their best, that is the Westminster Way. To find out more about how we do this visit https://www.westminster.gov.uk/health-and-social-care/public-health-strategy-policies-and-reports/equality-duties
As a forward-thinking Council we appreciate that people work in different ways, therefore our staff benefit from working a range of flexible working patterns as well as Agile working.
The Council is a Disability Confident Employer. If you have declared a disability in your application, we guarantee an interview if you meet the essential criteria of the job. If you are invited for interview, you will be asked if you need any reasonable adjustments in order to attend, and we will make these wherever possible.