About the role of Chair

Role description

Chair responsibilities:

The Chair will be responsible for the sound and effective operation of the Homes England Board. They will guide and influence the Agency at a strategic level providing confident, clear and consistent leadership. They will also lead the Agency’s relationship with the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Housing, who they will meet on a regular basis.

The Chair will act as an ambassador for the Board and for Homes England, helping to build and develop collaborative strategic partnerships that support and promote Homes England’s core mission. The successful candidate will influence and network with key decision-makers and stakeholders and explain how the organisation is delivering Government objectives.

The Chair is expected to operate within the relevant standards and duties, including the Non-Departmental Public Body (NDPB) Corporate governance code for central government departments and Managing Public Money. These provide the benchmark for good practice in corporate governance. As an NDPB, Homes England also needs to have regard to codes and standards in the public sector, including Cabinet Office guidance on Corporate governance in central government departments.

As the Chair of Homes England, there would be further organisation specific governance documents that would be expected to operate within, including the 2023 Framework document with MHCLG. The Chair is responsible to the Deputy Prime Minister and for supporting their wider strategic policies.

Key objectives of the Chair include:

Leading the Board to scrutinise and challenge the financial and delivery performance of Homes England.
Building capacity and capability at Board and executive level to ensure Homes England has the required experience and expertise to fulfil its mission and objectives.
Ensuring the Board actively supports the running of Homes England and its ongoing implementation of the recent Public Bodies Review recommendations.
Embedding effective working relationships with the department and wider government through governance processes including the Homes England Framework Document.
Strengthening the Board’s oversight of the organisation and holding the executive to account for organisational performance.
Accounting to Ministers on Homes England’s performance and leading the communication of performance to Parliament and stakeholders.

Person specification

To be considered for this high profile role, you must meet the following essential criteria and must demonstrate them in your documentation, with examples:

Essential criteria:

Comprehensive experience at Board level as a Chair or Non-Executive of a large organisation supporting, challenging and holding to account a strong executive team and showing the ability to communicate an organisation’s objectives and capabilities clearly to both internal and external audiences.
Experience of delivering significant projects e.g. in housing, regeneration or infrastructure.
Extensive experience of stakeholder engagement in public facing positions, with evidence of using influencing and networking abilities to form positive partnerships with a diverse range of stakeholders, in particular Local Authority partners.
Strong experience of leadership in a commercial or public sector context, along with notable financial and risk management acumen.
A passion and enthusiasm for public service and working with Government in meeting the challenges of the housing market.

Desirable criteria:

Experience in the housing sector, including social housing.
Experience working with central Government Departments and Ministers.
Experience of leading an organisation during uncertainty and change.

Regulation of appointment

This post is regulated by the Commissioner for Public Appointments. For more information, please refer to the Commissioner’s website

Outline Terms and Conditions

Remuneration: £95,000. Remuneration for this role is treated as employment income and will be subject to tax and National Insurance contributions, both of which will be deducted at source under PAYE before you are paid.

Pension and redundancy: This is an office holder appointment and does not attract any benefits under any Civil Service Pension Scheme. You will not be eligible for redundancy pay as you are not an employee. No other arrangements have been made for compensation upon the end of your term of appointment because an office holder who is appointed for a limited duration would have no expectation of serving beyond that period.

Time Commitment: Your time commitment is expected to be a maximum of 104 days per annum.

Status of appointment: As this is an office holder appointment, you will not become a member of the Civil Service. You will not be subject to the provisions of employment law.

Term: Appointments are made by Ministers for a period of up to 3 years.

Location: National (the successful candidate will often need to be available for Board meetings and meetings with Ministers and senior officials in London)

Interview: We expect that interviews will take place in person, the address can be found below:

Fry Building
2 Marsham Street
Westminster
London
SW1P 4DF

Expenses and Subsistence: Reasonable travel and subsistence expenses incurred on Homes England business will be reimbursed in accordance with Homes England policies.

Code of conduct: The Government expects all holders of public office to work to the highest personal and professional standards. In support of this, all non-executive board members of UK public bodies must abide by the principles set out in the Code of Conduct for Board Members of Public Bodies. The Code sets out the standards expected from those who serve on the boards of UK public bodies and will form part of your terms and conditions of appointment.

Nationality: You must have a right to work in the UK, there must be no employment restrictions, or limit on your permitted stay in the UK.

Annual Performance Review and Reappointment: Annual performance reviews are expected to be undertaken. Reappointments are not automatic and will only be considered subject to satisfactory performance reviews.

Click here to read full Cabinet Office guidance on public appointments

Eligibility criteria

In general, you should have the right to work in the UK to be eligible to apply for a public appointment.

There are a small number of specialist roles that are not open to non-British citizens. Any nationality requirements will be specified in the vacancy details.

The Government expects all holders of public office to work to the highest personal and professional standards.

You cannot be considered for a public appointment if:

You are disqualified from acting as a company director (under the Company Directors Disqualification Act 1986).
Have an unspent conviction on your criminal record.
Your estate has been sequestrated in Scotland or you enter into a debt arrangement programme under Part 1 of the Debt Arrangement and Attachment (Scotland) Act 2002 (asp 17) as the debtor or have, under Scots law, granted a trust deed for creditors.

When you apply, you should declare if:

You are, or have been, bankrupt or you have made an arrangement with a creditor at any point, including the dates of this.
You are subject to a current police investigation.

You must inform the sponsor department if, during the application process, your circumstances change in respect of any of the above points.

When you apply you should also declare any relevant interests, highlighting any that you think may call into question your ability to properly discharge the responsibilities of the role you are applying for. You should also declare any other matters which may mean you may not be able to meet the requirements of the Code of Conduct of Board Members (see Outside interests and reputational issues section below)

If you need further advice, please contact Tim Hills at our search partner GatenbySanderson, on tim.hills@gatenbysanderson.com

Security clearance

The successful candidate will be required to undertake Baseline Personnel Security Standard checks in line with the Civil Service guidelines. Additional Security Clearance may also be required for certain roles. However, where this applies, candidates will be notified during the appointment process. Further information on National Security Vetting can be found on the Gov.uk website here.

Equality and diversity

We encourage applications from talented individuals from all backgrounds and across the whole of the United Kingdom. Boards of public bodies are most effective when they reflect the diversity of views of the society they serve and this is an important part of the Government’s levelling up agenda.

We collect data about applicants’ characteristics and backgrounds, including information about people’s educational and professional backgrounds, so that we can make sure we are attracting a broad range of people to these roles and that our selection processes are fair for everyone. Without this information, it makes it difficult to see if our outreach is working, if the application process is having an unfair impact on certain groups and whether changes are making a positive difference.

When you submit your application, your responses are collected by the Cabinet Office and the government department(s) managing your application. The data is used to produce management information about the diversity of applicants. You can select “prefer not to say” to any question you do not wish to answer. The information you provide will not be seen by the Advisory Assessment Panel who review applications against the advertised criteria and conduct interviews.

Disability confident

We are a member of the Government’s Disability Confident scheme. We use the Disability Confident scheme symbol, along with other like-minded employers, to show our commitment to good practice in employing people with a disability. The scheme helps recruit and retain disabled people. As part of implementing the scheme, we guarantee an interview for anyone with a disability whose application meets the essential criteria for the role, set out in the advert, and who has asked that their application is considered under the scheme. Indicating that you wish your application to be considered under the scheme will in no way prejudice your application. By ‘essential criteria’, we mean that you must provide evidence which demonstrates that you meet the level of competence required under each of the essential criteria, as set out in the job-advert. When you apply you will have the opportunity to select if you would like your application considered under this scheme.

Reasonable adjustments

We are committed to making reasonable adjustments to make sure applicants with disabilities, physical or mental health conditions, or other needs are not substantially disadvantaged when applying for public appointments. This can include changing the recruitment process to enable people who wish to apply to do so.

Some examples of common changes are:

ensuring that application forms are available in different or accessible formats;
making adaptations to interview locations;
allowing candidates to present their skills and experience in a different way;
giving additional detailed information on the selection / interview process in advance to allow candidates time to prepare themselves;
allowing support workers, for example sign language interpreters;
making provision for support animals to attend.

When you apply you will have the opportunity to request reasonable adjustments to the application process.

Principles of public life

The Seven Principles of Public Life (also known as the Nolan Principles) apply to anyone who works as a public office-holder.

1. Selflessness

Holders of public office should act solely in terms of the public interest.

2. Integrity

Holders of public office must avoid placing themselves under any obligation to people or organisations that might try inappropriately to influence them in their work. They should not act or take decisions in order to gain financial or other material benefits for themselves, their family, or their friends. They must declare and resolve any interests and relationships.

3. Objectivity

Holders of public office must act and take decisions impartially, fairly and on merit, using the best evidence and without discrimination or bias.

4. Accountability

Holders of public office are accountable to the public for their decisions and actions and must submit themselves to the scrutiny necessary to ensure this.

5. Openness

Holders of public office should act and take decisions in an open and transparent manner. Information should not be withheld from the public unless there are clear and lawful reasons for so doing.

6. Honesty

Holders of public office should be truthful.

7. Leadership

Holders of public office should exhibit these principles in their own behaviour and treat others with respect. They should actively promote and robustly support the principles and challenge poor behaviour wherever it occurs.

Code of conduct for board members

The Government expects all holders of public office to work to the highest personal and professional standards. In support of this, all non-executive board members of UK public bodies must abide by the principles set out in the Code of Conduct for Board Members of Public Bodies. The Code sets out the standards expected from those who serve on the boards of UK public bodies and will form part of your terms and conditions of appointment.

Management of outside interests and consideration of repuational issues

Holders of public office are expected to adhere and uphold the Seven Principles of Public Life and the Code of Conduct for Board Members of Public Bodies. Before you apply you should consider carefully:

any outside interests that you may have, such as shares you may hold in a company providing services to government;
any possible reputational issues arising from your past actions or public statements that you have made;
and/or – any political roles you hold or political campaigns you have supported;

which may call into question your ability to do the role you are applying for.

You will need to answer relevant questions in relation to these points when making an application. Many conflicts of interest can be satisfactorily resolved and declaring a potential conflict does not prevent you from being interviewed. If you are shortlisted for an interview, the panel will discuss any potential conflicts with you during that interview, including any proposals you may have to mitigate them and record that in their advice to ministers. Alongside your own declaration, we will conduct appropriate checks, as part of which we will consider anything in the public domain related to your conduct or professional capacity. This may include searches of previous public statements and social media, blogs or any other publicly available information. The successful candidate(s) may be required to give up any conflicting interests and their other business and financial interests may be published in line with organisational policies.

Details of declared political activity will be published when the appointment is announced, as required by the Governance Code (political activity is not a bar to appointment, but must be declared).

Status of appointment

As this is an office holder appointment, you will not become a member of the Civil Service. You will not be subject to the provisions of employment law.

Appointment and tenure of office

Appointments are for the term set out in this advert, with the possibility of re-appointment for a further term, at the discretion of Ministers. Any re-appointment is subject to satisfactory annual appraisals of performance during the first term in the post. There is no automatic presumption of reappointment; each case should be considered on its own merits, taking into account a number of factors including, but not restricted to, the diversity of the current board and its balance of skills and experience. In most cases, the total time served in post will not exceed more than two terms or ten years in any one post.

Remuneration, allowances and abatement

Remuneration for this role is treated as employment income and will be subject to tax and National Insurance contributions, both of which will be deducted at source under PAYE before you are paid.

You can claim reimbursement for reasonable travel and subsistence costs which are properly and necessarily incurred on official business, in line with the travel and subsistence policy and rates for the organisation to which you are applying. However these payments are taxable as earnings and will be subject to tax and national insurance, both of which will be deducted at source under PAYE before you are paid.

Pension and redundancy

This is an office holder appointment and does not attract any benefits under any Civil Service Pension Scheme. You will not be eligible for redundancy pay as you are not an employee. No other arrangements have been made for compensation upon the end of your term of appointment because an office holder who is appointed for a limited duration would have no expectation of serving beyond that period.

Application feedback

We will notify you of the status of your application. We regret that we are only able to offer detailed feedback to candidates who have been unsuccessful at the interview stage.

How to complain

We aim to process all applications as quickly as possible and to treat all applicants with courtesy.

Please contact the MHCLG public appointments team in the first instance if you would like to make a complaint regarding your application at PublicAppointments@communities.gov.uk. They will acknowledge your complaint upon receipt and respond within 15 working days.

How to complain to Office of the Commissioner for Public Appointments (OCPA)

If you are not content with the appointing department’s response you may wish to further complain to the Commissioner at publicappointments@csc.gov.uk.Further information on how the Commissioner handles complaints can be found on the Commissioner for Public Appointments’ website https://publicappointmentscommissioner.independent.gov.uk/regulating-appointments/investigating-complaints/

Data protection

The Cabinet Office will use your data in line with our privacy policy. MHCLG’s Privacy Notice is included in this advert.

Contact details

Please contact PublicAppointments@communities.gov.uk with any queries.

Click here to read full Cabinet Office guidance on public appointments