Planning Obligation Officer
Job description
Original text imported from Reed
Purpose of Job:
To be responsible to the Performance and Planning Obligations Manager for:
- Responsible for the effective administration, monitoring and reporting of the Council’s Planning Obligations - arising from development in the Royal Borough (Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) and Section 106 agreements).
- Maintain an effective monitoring system to ensure obligation are collected and spent in accordance with the regulation and legal agreements.
- Responsible for preparing quarterly and annual financial returns setting out income and expenditure.
- Responsible for the Greenwich Neighbourhood Growth Fund and the allocation of neighbourhood CIL money to local community projects
Manages no directly managed staff or indirectly managed consultancy/contracting staff.
Main Duties:
SO1
- Monitor all planning obligations (CIL and S106 contributions) using manual and computerised recording systems for all aspects of income and expenditure, ensuring that planning obligations are effectively delivered, monitored and enforced.
- Ensure compliance with the Community Infrastructure Levy, including the assessment of the application of CIL, validation and verification of CIL forms, issuing of notices and raising of invoices, monitoring payment and enforcing where necessary.
- Monitor development commencement through commencement notices, records in building control, local land and property gazetteer, development monitoring and council tax systems to identify development commencement dates. Liaise with colleagues in Planning and other services to check development commencement on site.
- Liaise with developers to ensure planning obligations are adhered to and to work closely with Legal Services to take effective action where developers fail to comply with the requirement of these agreements.
- Work collaboratively with colleagues across the Council including Corporate Finance regarding payments, historical balances and projected spend / income.
- Maintain a detailed and clear audit trail for all budgets, undertaking regular financial and audit checks on projects and systems.
- Liaise with landowners, applicants and agents as required, to obtain relevant information and also ensure compliance with internal and external requirements.
- Utilise information technology to improve service delivery.
Key skills
AI-extracted from the job advert
Application advice
5 AI-generated recommendations to maximise your chances.
⭐ Highlight your CIL and S106 experience prominently in your personal statement, as the advert lists these as the core responsibilities of the role.
📊 Quantify your planning obligations work: e.g. 'Monitored 45 active S106 agreements totalling £2.3M in developer contributions across a two-year period'.
🎯 Demonstrate familiarity with local authority financial processes — specifically quarterly and annual financial returns — as the advert explicitly requires these skills.
🤝 Reference cross-departmental liaison experience (e.g. with Legal Services or Corporate Finance) as the role requires working collaboratively across multiple council teams.
🌐 Mention any experience with land and property gazetteers, building control systems or council tax systems, as the advert names these as tools used to track development commencement.
Suggested CV bullets
3 bullets our AI drafted for this specific advert, mirroring its ATS keywords.
Add these 3 bullets under your most recent experience:
- •Monitored 38 active CIL and S106 obligations across a borough-wide portfolio, maintaining a fully auditable income and expenditure record with zero compliance breaches over 18 months.
- •Prepared quarterly and annual financial returns for planning obligations totalling £1.6M in developer contributions, reconciling figures with Corporate Finance and resolving 12 historical balance discrepancies.
- •Coordinated enforcement action on 4 non-compliant developers in liaison with Legal Services, recovering £240,000 in outstanding CIL payments within a 6-month period.
Free to copy — tailoring requires a 30-sec CV upload.
Your cover letter is ready
We've drafted a cover letter for JOB SWITCH LTD. Preview the opening, then unlock the full personalised version.
Letter preview — tailored to JOB SWITCH LTD
Dear Hiring Manager,
The Planning Obligation Officer role at JOB SWITCH LTD supporting the Royal Borough of Greenwich aligns directly with my experience in CIL administration and S106 agreement monitoring. Having worked within a local authority planning environment, I understand the importance of rigorous compliance, accurate financial reporting and proactive enforcement when developers fail to meet their obligations.
My background in planning obligations includes validating and verifying CIL forms, issuing commencement notices, and maintaining detailed audit trails across income and expenditure budgets. I have prepared quarterly financial returns and liaised with Legal Services and Corporate Finance teams to resolve historical balances and projected spend discrepancies across active development sites.
Free signup, no card needed. Export to PDF/Word requires a £1.99 trial (14 days).
Interview questions
10 questions generated from this advert.
Technical
- ›How have you administered Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) obligations, from validation of forms through to enforcement of payment?
- ›Describe the computerised recording systems you have used to monitor S106 and CIL income and expenditure.
- ›How do you maintain an audit trail for planning obligation budgets, and what checks do you perform to ensure accuracy?
- ›What experience do you have preparing quarterly and annual financial returns for planning obligations?
- ›How have you used development commencement notices, building control records or council tax systems to identify when a development has started on site?
Behavioural
- ›Tell me about a time you identified a developer failing to comply with a planning obligation and describe the steps you took to resolve it.
- ›Describe a situation where you had to liaise with multiple internal teams — such as Legal Services and Corporate Finance — to resolve a complex planning obligations issue.
- ›Give an example of when you improved a monitoring or reporting process to make it more efficient or accurate.
- ›Tell me about a time you had to manage competing deadlines across multiple active planning obligation cases simultaneously.
- ›Describe a situation where you had to communicate a complex regulatory requirement clearly to an external party such as a developer or landowner.
STAR answer examples
Model answers using the Situation-Task-Action-Result framework. Adapt to your own experience.
Tell me about a time you identified a developer failing to comply with a planning obligation and describe the steps you took to resolve it.
Describe a situation where you had to liaise with multiple internal teams — such as Legal Services and Corporate Finance — to resolve a complex planning obligations issue.
Similar jobs
View allTechnical Officer/Trainee Planner
JOB SWITCH LTD · Lambeth
Contracts Manager - Housing Services - Local Authority
Reed · Oldham
Contracts Manager - Housing Services - Local Authority
Reed · Oldham
Principal Management/ Financial Accountant (G12)
Reed · Wakefield