Planning Manager

Salary £65,000 + car allowance

Location Chipping Sodbury

The vacancy

We’re seeking an experienced planning manager to help deliver high-quality, affordable homes, focusing on the Bristol and Gloucestershire areas. This role offers the opportunity to shape new communities, influence planning strategies and support a diverse development programme that delivers homes on time and to best value.

As planning manager, you’ll advise the business on all town planning matters and manage the planning application process across multiple projects. You’ll lead planning appraisals for potential sites, identifying risks and opportunities and recommending appropriate planning strategies, programmes and outcomes.

You will carry out robust due diligence on land offers and acquisitions, ensuring planning risks are clearly understood and mitigation strategies and associated costs are in place. Working collaboratively with colleagues, you will lead project teams in preparing and submitting high‑quality planning applications. You’ll shape the planning strategy, manage stakeholder engagement through to determination, and negotiate Section 106 agreements with local authorities.

Working closely with internal colleagues, local authorities and external partners, you’ll build strong stakeholder relationships to support timely delivery and best value outcomes. You’ll also assist the technical and construction teams with the discharge of planning conditions and Section 106 requirements.

This role is permanent and full time. You’ll be based from our office in Chipping Sodbury but with the opportunity to also work from our main Tewkesbury office and travel across our west region (Bristol and Gloucestershire areas). Regular home working is also available and flexible working is supported where possible.

To be successful, you will have:

Proven experience of managing and delivering planning approvals for residential volume housing programmes.
Experience of budget and programme management.
An RTPI-accredited degree with associate or licentiate membership of RTPI.
Strong negotiation skills with excellent written and verbal communication.
High attention to detail with the ability to manage multiple priorities effectively.
A proactive, self-starting approach and confidence working with ambiguity.
Resilience and strong problem-solving skills, with the ability to develop practical solutions.
Strategic vision, including proactively keeping up-to-date with policy and political changes, and assessing how these are likely to impact on the planning strategy.
Strong IT skills.
A full UK driving licence.

The closing date is 28 January with first stage interviews taking place via Teams on 4 February.

Join Bromford, part of Bromford Flagship, and become part of a leading housing provider delivering community-focused services across the Midlands and South West - all backed by the scale and ambition of the Bromford Flagship group. Here, you will have the opportunity to make a meaningful difference, working with passionate colleagues to create homes and communities where people can thrive.

About us

We’re part of one of the biggest housing associations in the country, Bromford Flagship. As Bromford, our purpose is simple and honest: we invest in homes and relationships so that people can thrive.

We provide over 47,000 homes in the West Midlands and West of England; we have relationships with more than 112,000 customers; we have a strong balance sheet and we plan to deliver 11,000 more homes by 2032.

But we’re only just getting started.

Through place-based working, our people build progress from the ground up. You’ll find us at the heart of the communities we serve, forging stronger neighbourhood relationships, reacting faster to shifting needs, and planning smarter.

And we’ve created a thriving place of our own – giving brilliant people like you the tools and opportunities to build a future.

With development that helps you grow in your role, build future-ready skills, and perform at your best. All within a vibrant and inclusive culture guided by our DNA (https://www.bromford.co.uk/careers/working-for-bromford/).

We’re a place for people determined to make a difference.

Bromford. A place to make your own.

Diversity Statement
We are committed to recruiting, developing and retaining colleagues who are representative of the diverse communities we work with. This commitment is embedded in our DNA, and we are striving to build an inclusive workplace culture where all colleagues feel valued and respected, and individuality is celebrated. We are a proud "Disability Confident" (Level 2) and Menopause Friendly employer and have signed the Armed Forces covenant to support those who serve.

We encourage people from all sections of our community to apply for jobs with us. Particularly, we welcome those who have been historically underrepresented in areas of our workforce including people from ethnic minority backgrounds, disabled people, women, and members of the LGBTQIA+ community.

Great Place To Work Certified
Bromford have once again been certified as a Great Place To Work (Nov 24 – Nov 25). The 2024 Great Place to Work Trust Index Survey highlighted that our employees believe we have an amazing company culture and that 91% of our employees were made to feel welcome when they joined us. We are also proud to have been named as one of the UK’s Best Workplaces for Women for two years running (2023 and 2024) demonstrating that all colleagues, regardless of gender, can thrive at Bromford.