Harborough District Council Multiple Vacancies

Welcome

Thank you for looking at the exciting career opportunities currently on offer here at Harborough District Council.

Harborough District, in rural South Leicestershire, is a wonderful place to live, work, invest in and visit, with around 98,000 residents and covering 228 square miles. We pride ourselves on the diversity of our landscape and have two historic market towns alongside farms and fields, larger villages and smaller rural settlements. Around 100 parishes contribute to a real sense of local identity.

However, we are not a rural backwater. We have excellent rail and road links, making the area highly accessible, including being on the main trainline through to St Pancras in London, along with the excellent road links with the M1, A6, A46. We have a vibrant local economy with a mix of services, creative industries and light industrial. Next to Lutterworth we have Magna Park, Europe’s largest warehouse and distribution hub with large blue chip companies like Amazon, Wayfair and Iron Mountain.

The council itself has a mix of in-house, partnership and outsourced services, with its major waste and grounds services and leisure being outsourced. Disabled facilities grant administration (Lightbulb), building control, revenues and benefits and internal audit are delivered in partnership with other councils. Our housing stock was also transferred a number of years ago and is owned now by Platform Housing Group. With a new coalition administration being elected in May 2023, this has brought with it huge ambition and a strong focus on community with a new community engagement & development team, a new £1m community grants fund and a new annual community awards programme. We have a significant capital programme that includes development of a new depot (£10m), significant investment in our leisure offer (£6m) and the development of new temporary accommodation facilities (£1.5m).

In respect of governance, the council has strong financial and legal governance; with a surplus budget for this and next year and a balanced medium-term financial strategy through to 2028/29, and all of our statutory accounts are up to date. However, there are some challenges; improvements are required in respect of budget monitoring and timeliness of legal advice. A Corporate Peer Challenge is programmed with the Local Government Association (LGA) for mid November and we are looking forward to telling our story, showcasing our areas of good practice and embracing any areas highlighted for improvement.

You will find a supportive and welcoming culture, with a very proactive and progressive approach to making a difference and a thirst to achieve success for residents, businesses and visitors. I therefore hope that you will consider joining ‘Team Harborough’ and look forward to an initial discussion or better still receiving an application from you.

John Richardson
Chief Executive