ABOUT US
Join us – make a difference in our communities as a Valuation & Estates Manager at West Sussex County Council.
The Valuation and Estates Team within the Property and Assets Directorate provides a value for money, high quality and professional service delivering all West Sussex County Council’s estate’s needs. Our team manages the complete life cycle of property ownership of the County Council, providing a one-stop shop for the Council’s services’ property needs. This includes all transactional matters, ranging from the acquisition of land and buildings and their subsequent management, through to disposal, and involves liaison with other teams and external parties concerning the use and occupation of our properties.
The Valuation and Estates Manager is responsible for the leadership and senior management of the Valuations and Estates Team, comprising up to 8 members of staff, the majority of whom will be professionally RICS qualified general practice surveyors, including the Principal Surveyor/Lead Professional. You will be part of the property senior management team responsible for driving forward service improvements to deliver the Council’s aspiration for a cost effective asset management function to maximise (and where necessary rationalise) financial and other benefits from a portfolio of property interests valued in excess of £1.6 billion in the Council’s financial accounts.
About the role
Salary: £64,682 to £68,330 per annum.
Location: Your office base will be County Hall, Chichester, A typical week will combine homeworking with attendance at the office at least once a week and site visits. This is led by the needs of the service.
Working pattern: Full-time, 37 hours per week. Flexible working options available, to be agreed with your line manager.
Interview date: 7th July
You will need to be able to travel independently around the county, including to areas that may not be easily accessible by public transport. Pool cars and pool bikes are available.
JOB DETAILS
About the Role
This role leads on the complicated and skilled cases, such as collaboration with external stakeholder and development opportunities and requires significant and high-level post qualification experience, also dealing with the Corporate investment portfolio and landlord and tenant matters.
As part of the role, you will be the leading specialist in the valuation and estates professional field, offering advice and acting as an expert in all matters relating to property to include both leasehold and freehold disposals and acquisitions, development projects, the granting of leases, licenses, easements, and other property transactions such as option and promotion agreements. You will be responsible for overseeing the County’s asset valuation and rating contracts, insurance valuations, managing and delivering an estate and valuation service across a broad range of property assets.
Duties will include operational resource planning, ensuring that recommendations for future resource needs are captured and mobilised. A knowledge of property law and planning regulations is crucial to the role and some local authority experience related to Education and Highway matters (in particular sec 106 planning agreements) would be desirable.
Maximising income generation and the provision of capital receipts is an important part of the role, although the team also manages a range of community focused assets.
As a technical specialist, you will need sound commercial knowledge and you will be instrumental in managing complex property projects, either working alongside internal service teams, senior management of partner organisations or through direct project management of externally appointed consultants. You will also be a key client contact in respect of the Valuation and Estate service, managing externally appointed consultants and surveyors to meet objectives and deliver an effective client focussed service, working with clients to give high level authoritative advice and information.
You will manage staff and advise and train other team members on aspects of their role and their professional development as a surveyor. The postholder supports the Head of Assets in relation to the whole service and deputises for the Head of Assets on board meetings and when they are absent. They support junior members of the team to secure RICS qualification and through their apprenticeships.
What you’ll need to succeed
For this role you will be expected to demonstrate relevant skills and experiences including:
- Experienced Service Manager
- Ability to make sound pragmatic problem-solving decisions, which will have a wider service impact and could be business critical.
- Ability to give detailed expert, technical property and management advice and use considerable judgement to define and resolve problems and identify solutions without clear guidance.
- Effective research and planning skills to construct creative solutions to ensure the successful delivery of service provision working on a time horizon of several years.
- Ability to challenge existing practices, processes and activities and identify and deliver innovative solutions and alternative courses of action.
- Highly developed communication skills to persuade, negotiate or influence within or outside the organisation to achieve challenging/sensitive objectives and ensure implementation of solutions.
- Ability to set & monitor objectives / timescales and meet planned activities, projects and reviews.
- Sound partnership working skills with the ability to develop and manage effective links and relationships across and outside of the organisation and co-ordinate a range of partners to successfully deliver objectives.
- Effective people management and performance management skills with the ability to lead and inspire, providing direction and support to individuals and teams.
Qualifications and/or experience:
- Relevant chartered status of a professional body ((RICS) Chartered Surveyor or Valuer) and high level of experience of involved practices.
- Post graduate professional qualification relevant either to management or to the professional service specialism, or equivalent level of significant experience demonstrating comprehensive application of the above levels of knowledge in a relevant setting.
- Significant post qualification experience in dealing with significant and complex issues relating to Property, Estates and Valuations.
- Broad significant theoretical knowledge across the specialism of the areas managed.
- Broad practical knowledge of complex theories including relevant technical knowledge to manage policies, projects and strategies.
- Sound practical and theoretical knowledge of the political environment of local government and partner organisations.
For a full detailed list of the skills and qualifications required for this position please refer to the attached Job Description.
Rewards and Benefits
- From flexible working (where possible) to access to our Employee Assistance Programme, we are committed to providing a healthy work life balance.
- A laptop and mobile phone will be supplied. You will benefit from a generous annual leave allowance , plus the opportunity to buy additional leave, an excellent Local government pension scheme as well as a range of discounts giving our staff access to hundreds of offers.
- For more information about the wide variety of benefits you can take advantage of please visit our Rewards and Benefits page.
Further Information
The reference number for this role is (EIE01547).
Applicants are strongly advised to arrange an informal conversation for further information regarding the role; please contact [email protected]
For an informal conversation regarding the application process, please contact Rachael Doolan (Recruitment Specialist) at [email protected] For issues or queries regarding your application please contact [email protected]
How to Apply
Click apply below, upload your CV and cover letter. Your cover letter should:
- Outline your motivations for applying.
- Explain the skills and experience you can bring to the role (please refer to the key skills in the attached job description).
Please ensure you have saved the job description attached to the main advert on our website as, once the job has closed, you may not have the opportunity to download it again.
Equity, inclusion and accessibility is very important to West Sussex County Council. We welcome and encourage applications from everyone, as this helps us build a diverse and talented workforce, that reflects the communities we serve. We ensure our approach to recruitment is flexible and supportive to enable all applicants to be at their best and to ensure they have the best possible chance of success.
We operate a guaranteed interview scheme for applicants that have a disability, are a veteran or are a care leaver. More information can be found on our application help page.
