Head of Housing Strategy

**The Greater London Authority is recruiting a fixed term Head of Housing Strategy** (maternity cover).**

You will be responsible for a policy team of 12 and a private rented sector team of four. Together the teams devise and deliver the Mayor’s Housing Strategy, which forms the backbone of policy direction for housing in London. The teams work closely with the Deputy Mayor for Housing and Residential Development, to provide high quality advice on policy and projects to promote high quality, affordable homes for all Londoners.

Working with senior leaders across the Housing and Land directorate, you will be responsible for providing strategic advice and analysis to support delivery of the Mayor’s Affordable Homes Programme and Land Funds. You will support implementation of the Kerslake Review, which will see major changes to the way housing is developed across the GLA Group and the first steps towards creating a City Hall developer.

You will oversee delivery of the Mayor’s Better Renting projects to directly improve outcomes for private renters. The post holder will cultivate relationships with national and local government and representatives from the housing sector across London to support effective delivery of the Mayor’s goals. Your contribution will be vital to ensuring that the Mayor and other stakeholders work together effectively to address London’s housing crisis. You will have a proven track record of team leadership, high quality policy analysis, rigorous prioritisation and expert problem solving, and the sound political judgement that enables you to win the confidence of senior stakeholders.

You will be joining an ever-expanding Housing and Land directorate and be expected to play an active role in the directorate’s management team. The division is committed to making the GLA a great place to work for all staff regardless of background. Over the next year you will pay particular focus to implementing the recommendations from a recent independent review into ethnic minority diversity at the GLA, in order to ensure that the directorate attracts and retains the best talent from all backgrounds. It is expected that there may be further opportunities for progression in the directorate at the end of the appointment.

Knowledge of London’s housing sector is strongly desirable but not essential. We want to understand how your skills and experience are relevant to this work, regardless of your professional background. So please submit a supporting statement that uses specific examples to demonstrate how you meet the following criteria from the job description and person specification:

- Significant knowledge and understanding of housing and homelessness issues in London (technical requirement).
- Experience of providing impartial advice to senior officers and politicians and of operating in a complex political environment (demonstrating the competencies problem solving and organisational awareness).
- An ability to motivate stakeholders to achieve your objectives (demonstrating the competency communicating and influencing).
- Experience of leading a team to achieve short-term and long-term projects amid competing priorities (demonstrating the competencies strategic thinking and planning and organising).
- Experience of leading through change, either organisational or within a changing and unpredictable external environment (demonstrating the competency responding to pressure and change).

This role will be based at City Hall, in the Royal Docks (Kamal Chunchie Way, London, E16 1ZE). GLA staff are hybrid working up to 3 days a week in our offices and remotely depending on their role. As part of this, you will need to split your time between home working and coming into the office. You will also be required to work from the GLA’s secondary office (169 Union Street).

This job is ‘politically restricted’ under the Local Government and Housing Act 1989