Building Conservation Officer

Leicester City Council is hiring a full-time Building Conservation Officer to enhance the city's historic places and conservation areas. The role involves providing expert advice on development proposals, preparing management plans, and conducting site visits. Candidates should have a degree in a related field and experience in built conservation. The position is based at City Hall and requires travel across Leicester, making it a non-remote job.
Full-time / 37 hours per week / Permanent

Would you like to play a key role in enhancing Leicesters conservation area, historic places, and buildings?

Leicester City is at the forefront of developing proactive approaches to heritage management in England. From helping develop a new Heritage Development Trust, to actively working on buildings at risk and a comprehensive Local Heritage Asset Register, the Conservation Team is involved in a wide range of challenging and positive projects. Leicesters economy is showing strong growth and the development of new approaches to heritage management is central to the continued success of the city.

This is a fantastic opportunity for a Building Conservation Officer to join our conservation team in the Planning service. We aim to provide advice and guidance on all aspects of the historic and natural environment and are pro-active in protecting and enhancing the citys historic assets and heritage led regeneration. Youll be a valued member in our team of specialists, with the potential to further develop your interdisciplinary skills and experience, including through our established partnerships with local universities.

Based at City Hall, youll be required to travel across the city to conduct site visits, but this can potentially be using one of the Councils electric pool bikes.

This is a full-time, permanent post working 37 hours per week, working from Monday to Friday. On occasion you may be required to attend meetings in the evening.

What Youll Be Doing

As an expert in this field, youll provide specialist advice on the historic environment and development proposals, with particular focus on schemes affecting conservation areas, listed buildings and other heritage assets. You will be involved with helping improve schemes, from major regeneration projects to smaller scale plans relating to individual buildings of significance.

Youll prepare character appraisals and management plans for conservation areas, as well as researching potential new areas for protection. This will involve a wide range of activity, from archive research and report writing, to working with contractors and businesses on enhancement schemes.

Youll liaise and consult with representatives of external agencies, organisations, and businesses as well as residents of Leicester on work relating to heritage assets. There will be opportunities for more creative partnership working with the local universities and exploring innovative schemes to engage more people in heritage.

What Youll Need

With a proven track record of working within built conservation, youll understand what constitutes the historic environment and be able to assess the relevant significance of its constituent parts. Youll be able to interpret technical drawings, plans, reports, and specifications to ensure there is a high standard of design which complements the individual conservation areas. Youll have either a degree or equivalent in Town Planning, Architecture, Building Conservation, Building Surveying related discipline or equivalent knowledge gained through practical experience. Using excellent communication skills, youll confidently present proposals to members, advise officers and maintain strong working relationships with internal and external stakeholders. Demonstrating a commitment to promoting a high-quality environment, youll ensure conservation of the historic environment is at the heart of your work.

What We Can Offer You

As well as the satisfaction of helping to improve thousands of lives across Leicester, you can look forward to a work environment that encourages a healthy work/life balance. Youll enjoy generous annual leave, membership of the Local Government Pension Scheme and the option of flexible working. Well also give you the chance to develop your skills and expertise with a variety of training and development opportunities. In addition, you can choose from a number of flexible benefits, including childcare vouchers, discounts on city buses and trains and help with relocation to Leicester, where appropriate. For an illustrative value of your benefits package, take a look at our benefits calculator.

Join us

Were committed to recruiting a diverse and highly-talented workforce as we continue to build a council that is fitting and representative of our great city. Thats why weve designed our recruitment process to put you at your ease, make you feel welcome and bring the best out of you. Well do all we can to make our recruitment process as fair as possible. To help you with your application, take a look at the our approach to recruitment page.

For an informal discussion about this post, please contact Justin Webber on

Interviews / Assessments will take place week commencing 31st of March