South West Area Lead

**Details**:
**Reference number**:

- 376976**Salary**:

- £51,934- The salary for this role is £51,934 (National).- A Civil Service Pension with an employer contribution of 28.97%**Job grade**:

- Grade 7**Contract type**:

- Permanent**Business area**:

- Group: Local Growth, Communities and Devolution Directorate: Area and Analysis**Type of role**:

- Policy**Working pattern**:

- Flexible working, Full-time, Job share, Part-time**Number of jobs available**:

- 1Contents

Location

About the job

**Benefits**:
Things you need to know

Location
- BristolAbout the job

**Job summary**:
The South West Area Team is recruiting for a G7 Area Lead. Area leads are the experts for their sub-region on local growth challenges and opportunities and manage HMG’s relationships with key delivery partners in these places. Our team works collaboratively with partners in the South West to develop economic growth opportunities, while sharing invaluable insight on regional issues with local and central government to help inform decision making.

Local stakeholders include both the public and private sector and includes external engagement with key business and business representative organisations in the area. You will also manage relationships with key partners within Government and gather and present intelligence to ensure maximum impact.

Area teams are experts on the places. We have a strong grasp of the facts and figures, but facts and figures don’t explain a place. We understand local individuals and institutions. We know how places feel. We know their history. We can tell stories about them and work with them to deliver change. MHCLG, DBT and the centre of Government, rely on area teams to work with people and places across the UK to develop and deliver policies to deliver Ministers’ objectives. The teams are an integral part of the policy development and delivery mechanisms.

The Cities and Local Growth Unit represents the Government Local Growth agenda across the whole of the UK focusing on relationships with local partners and delivery.

It is a joint Department for Business and Trade (DBT) and Ministry for Housing Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) directorate formed of 5 area teams (North West; Yorkshire, Humber & North East; West Midlands & South West; East Midlands, East Anglia and Ox Cam; London & South East).

**Job description**:
**Key responsibilities**

As an Area Lead for the South West Area Team, you will:

- Lead Government’s relationships on local growth in your area, including collaborating on economic development plans in the area and supporting local authorities, universities, business groups and others in their interactions with central government.
- Represent CLGU at key regional business representative organisational events/meetings as well as with other businesses in the region.
- Produce high quality local economic intelligence, ensuring impacts of energy costs, supply chain pressures and other high level changes are understood and supporting the HMG response to local economic shocks.
- Use your relationships and influence with partners across Government to feed local knowledge into the design, appraisal, assessment, and decision-making process of policy and programmes design.
- Lead and support Ministerial briefings on regional risks and opportunities and ensure a high-quality service on parliamentary business and ministerial visits.
- Assure delivery of government funded growth projects by local partners through performance management reviews on a regular basis for the larger or more complex local authorities in your area.
- Deputise for and support G5s and / or G6s in their responsibilities as appropriate.

The role may require a specific geographical area focus in the future and therefore some flexibility is required.The role may involve some line management.

**Person specification**:
**Essential Criteria**
- Proven leadership skills and the ability to identify and advocate an evidence based response to risks/issues/opportunities, even when overlooked by others.
- Excellent oral communication and influencing skills, able to build rapport with colleagues from different backgrounds and experiences.
- Robust written communication skills, able to translate complex policy detail into simple and strategically consistent briefs and speeches.
- Strong organisational skills, able to manage competing/changing deadlines and effectively articulate pressures faced.
- The ability to quickly get up to speed with a range of policy areas, able to adopt a holistic approach to Whitehall policy developments.
- Proactive stakeholder management skills, able to listen to key stakeholder issues/opportunities and translate these into action within government.

**Desirable Criteria**
- An understanding of the key challenges and opportunities for the South West economy.
- An understanding of local government structures and developments.
- Demonstrated competence using data, including key economic in