Chartered Surveyor – Built Environment

Valuation Office Agency (VOA)

Location

Birmingham, Bristol, Cambridge, Cardiff, Colchester, Croydon, Durham, Eastbourne, Exeter, Folkestone, Hull, Lancaster, Leeds, Liverpool, Manchester, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Norwich, Nottingham, Oxford, Plymouth, Preston, Sheffield, Southampton, St Austell, Stoke-on-Trent, Swansea, Wrexham

Job summary

The VOA is an executive agency of the HMRC and is the largest employer of Chartered Surveyors with circa 4000 employees in the business. The VOA provides valuation and property advice to support taxation and benefits to the government and local authorities, as well as valuation and surveying services to clients in the public sector.

The VOA is keen to develop its staff and strives to provide a broad range of experience, recognising everybody’s contribution and value.

The Built Environment (BEAMS) team at the Valuation Office Agency has exciting opportunities to join their team of highly enthusiastic and skilled Chartered Surveyors with a technical aptitude.

If you are a Chartered Surveyor who is not already qualified in the Building or Quantity Surveying Pathways, you will undertake a fully funded RICS qualification to enable you to develop the skills and knowledge required. The training offered will support you to deepen your technical knowledge and further your career.

For more information on the courses we’re referring to please follow this link: Search results (rics.org) .

Our team comprises of Chartered Surveyors in the Minerals & Waste Management, Quantity Surveying, and Building Surveying professions. We also employ technicians and researchers. We are proud that our team is made up of colleagues from diverse social and economic backgrounds.

Job description

The team offers specialist surveying services across government on a range of professional and technical projects. Our work offers variety. We are responsible for the delivery of surveying services on a range of properties and specialist building structures which range in complexity and size. You might find yourself working on historic buildings and unique and specialist structures such as light houses, government buildings, nuclear sites , and many more.

Our team of Chartered Building and Quantity Surveyors provide advice both internally and directly to external clients. Our primary services include but are not limited to:

1. Building Surveying – Pathology, cost schedules in relation to disrepair, dilapidations, condition surveys, insurance reinstatements, disrepair cost assessments and depreciated reinstatement advice.
2. Quantity Surveying – Preparation of Agency Cost Guides including specification, evidence-based costs and providing costs to inform contractors’-based valuations, development viability assessments and cost appraisals for other government bodies.

We are ultimately seeking a dedicated individual with a desire to broaden their horizons and enter the world of Built Environment. We will provide comprehensive training in these areas to ensure candidates are well equipped to carry out this work. We welcome applications from people who wish to expand their knowledge and branch out into a new area.

Person specification

As a Chartered Surveyor in the Built Environment you will be responsible for:

• Providing specialist advice on the cost and repair of buildings, infrastructure, and associated attributes. Preparing schedules of costs and professional reports.
• Maintaining your knowledge through CPD (Continuous Professional Development) in areas of legislation, case law, codes of practice and professional standards relevant to your chosen area of expertise and the work undertaken within the Built Environment Team.
• Managing and mitigating risks and issues, ensuring timely escalation to senior colleagues.
• Managing and supporting the delivery of single jobs or projects to ensure time, cost, and quality deliverables are met.
• On occasion, you may be called upon to act as an expert witness at Valuation Tribunal and other courts as required (Training and support in appearing as an expert witness will be provided).
• Provide mentoring, technical advice, and training to support graduates and apprentices on their APC pathways and to support the development of others within the immediate team or wider agency as required.
• Travel and overnight stays away from home are necessary to facilitate work delivery.We are reasonable with our expectations and provide flexible working arrangements to support this need.

Essential Requirements

MRICS/FRICS Chartered Building or Quantity Surveyor with a personal and professional dedication to your ongoing development.

Or

For Chartered Surveyors not holding MRICS in the Building or Quantity Surveying Pathway, you will be required to complete the RICS Certificate in Building Surveying or Quantity Surveying programme. On-the-job training will be provided to support your development.

• Have excellent interpersonal and communication skills and be able to deal with a wide range of customers and partners.
• Demonstrate strong analytical and judgement skills by interpreting a range of evidence to provide relevant advice and reach sound conclusions.
• Good report writing and presentational skills.
• Able to undertake site visits and occasional overnight stays; together with travel to other VOA locations being part of a dispersed National Team
• A full valid driving licence.

Desirable Requirements

The desirable requirements of the Chartered Surveyor include:

Good skills level in the use of common software applications, such as Microsoft 365; Microsoft Teams, Word and Excel. A willingness to learn new software and VOA IT systems, training will be provided.

Licences

Driving Licence

Qualifications

MRICS or FRICS

Memberships

MRICS or FRICS

Behaviours

We’ll assess you against these behaviours during the selection process:

• Communicating and Influencing
• Delivering at Pace
• Developing Self and Others

Technical skills

We’ll assess you against these technical skills during the selection process:

• We will assess your technical ability where we will look for evidence of relevant expertise, experience and understanding of surveying and valuation based on the Government Property Profession (GPP) Career Framework.

Benefits

We offer a range of flexible working options, a generous leave allowance that starts at 25 days and goes up to 30 days after 5 years’ service and a Civil Service Pension with an average employer contribution of 27%. Maternity, adoption or shared parental leave of up to 26 weeks with full pay followed by 13 weeks statutory pay and a further 13 weeks unpaid, and paternity leave of 4 weeks at full pay.

The VOA operates a Flexible Working policy, allowing you to balance your work and personal commitments. For example, you could undertake on some days a longer working day and then work shorter days on others. The VOA also operates hybrid working – your role will be a combination of office and home working. More information on our flexible working policy can be provided on request.

The most popular parts of our reward package include:

• Pay – In the last few years, we have increased both the minimum and maximum pay points for everyone in the VOA.
• Pension – We make contributions to our colleagues’ Alpha pension equal to at least 26% of their salary.
• Working hours and location flexibility – Everyone in the VOA has some opportunity to work from home, and we support a full range of flexible working options including part time, part year, compressed hours and job shares.
• Family friendly policies – Including four weeks of paid paternity leave.
• Personal support – We offer extensive special leave to help balance your life and work commitments, a variety of non-financial rewards (including a Cycle to Work scheme of up to £4000) and we work with professional providers to provide occupational health and full mental and physical wellbeing services.

Download the Employee Value Proposition for full details of the benefits of being a VOA employee at:

If you would like further information on these vacancies and to apply, please follow the ‘Apply’ button to the civil service jobs website.