Policy Adviser, Local Growth Plans and Mayoral Engagement and Regional Growth Strategy Adviser

Have you worked in policy before? Are you interested in a role addressing major domestic issues that draw interest from the Chancellor, No 10, and ministers across Government? These positions offer the chance to positively affect lives throughout the country. If this appeals to you, we’d love to hear from you!

About the Team
The Local Government and Reform  (LGR) team are responsible for managing HM Treasury’s interests in local government policy and funding. We work closely with colleagues in the Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government, and other departments, to shape the government’s approach to local economic growth and local government.

This includes ensuring that councils have the resources they need to deliver key services and implement government priorities, including reform of adult and children’s social care. We also seek to ensure that financial powers and policy responsibilities are devolved to the most appropriate level of government. HM Treasury has an interest in these issues from both a spending perspective (ensuring expenditure is affordable and delivered to budget) and an economic perspective (evaluating whether policies offer value-for-money and will deliver the benefits envisaged). The team is split into two units: English Devolution and Economic Clusters Unit and the Local Government Finance Unit.

The Housing, Planning and Cities (HPC) team  shapes policy and manages spending for the Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG), while also co-ordinating cross-government work on regional growth and place. This means we are responsible for over £10 billion of public spending each year and work on an exciting range of government priorities including regional growth strategy (one of the Chancellor’s three ‘big bets’ in her recent Mais lecture), housing supply, planning and homelessness reduction. 

About the Job
In the LGR role, you will be:

• Leading HMT’s engagement with Mayoral Strategic Authorities (MSAs): You will work closely with MHCLG to build and deliver HMT’s engagement strategy with mayors and their officers, including advising on senior and ministerial engagement around fiscal events and for set piece moments throughout the year via working groups with MSAs.
• Ensuring local government is set up to deliver growth: Working collaboratively with teams across the Treasury, central government and local government, you will guide central government’s approach to supporting Mayoral Strategic Authorities and other local partners to deliver growth. This will include using your relationships with local stakeholders to understand their needs and working across departmental boundaries to ensure central government’s offer addresses these. One example of this is ongoing work with the Northern Growth Strategy team as they design and deliver strategic the Northern Growth Strategy.

In the HPC role you will be:

• Leading on several key policy areas’ interaction with the regional growth strategy (e.g. culture, energy, skills), liaising with the spending teams and representatives from the relevant department, and working with these partners to develop a package of announcements that supports the regional growth strategy and northern growth corridor.
• Developing a cross-government workstream to deliver better regional spend data. The postholder will assess departmental capability and work with partners in MHCLG to invigorate efforts across departments to deliver better regional tracking of spend, both day-to-day and at spending reviews. 

For a full list of key accountabilities please view the advert via Civil Service Jobs.

About You
You will be able to develop strategy across a range of policy fields, considering the interaction between multiple levels of government. Communicate effectively with senior leaders and break down complicated information.  Build good relationships with colleagues from many different teams, departments and external stakeholders – and use these connections to drive goals forward.

Some of the Benefits our people love!

• Generous Annual Leave – 25 days (rising to 30 after 5 years), plus public holidays and the King’s birthday.
• Outstanding Pension Scheme – Defined Benefit pension with employer contributions of 28%
• Parental Leave Packages – Including 6 months’ occupational pay for maternity/adoption, shared parental leave options.
• Flexible & Hybrid Working – Options include part-time, job-share, compressed hours, flexitime, and hybrid working (where business needs allow).
• Advance Schemes & Discounts – Rental deposit, cycle-to-work, SmartTech, season ticket loans, and access to HM Treasury’s benefits portal for a wide range of discount codes.

For more information about the role and how to apply, please follow the apply link.

If you need any reasonable adjustments to take part in the selection process, please tell us about this in your online application form, or speak to the recruitment team at View email address on northeastjobs.org.uk .