Markets Development Team Leader WCC620380

Job Details:

Salary range: £54,684 - £74,487 per annum 
Work location: Westminster City Hall, 64 Victoria Street, Westminster, SW1E 6QP
Hours per week: 36.00 
Contract type: Permanent   
Closing date: 6 April 2025

About Us:

THE EXTRAORDINARY STORY OF KEITH’S TRANSFORMATIONAL WORK 

Public Protection & Licensing in Westminster City Council is a world of extraordinary stories. Where people like Keith and his team are passionate about keeping our borough clean, safe, healthy and free of pests.

Pest control might not sound like the most glamorous job, but to Keith it’s the best job in the world. As our Senior Pest Control Technician, it’s his task to see that Westminster is kept free of the sort of pests which can cause worry, fear, discomfort and – in the worst cases – illness. He and his dedicated team work tirelessly across the entire borough, from restaurants and cafés to parks and gardens, and from shops and offices to houses and flats.

Keith started his career in research and development for the private sector, before becoming a field biologist and then joining us here in Westminster. To begin with he was on a two year contract but when this was about to end he was asked to stay, and he’s been here ever since, working his way up the career ladder, and is now leading his team.

No two days are the same for him and the team, but the best ones are when they’re called out to help a family who are suffering from an infestation of – for example – mice, and this is not only making their lives a misery, but is creating unhealthy living conditions. But once the team have finished their work all of a sudden the family’s lives are transformed, they feel safer living in their own home, and can sleep peacefully at night without the worry discomfort and noise of tiny little feet scurrying around.

And on top of this, he believes that if you love your job, and are passionate about what you can achieve, you can build a fulfilling, rewarding and truly life-changing career at Westminster. 

The Role:

As a Markets Development Team Leader, you can make your own powerful contribution by ensuring Westminster’s street markets are achieving their full economic potential in order to deliver more value to their local communities. Focusing on six key markets, you will lead a team of three Business Support Officers in creating the strategies required to ensure each market isn’t just meeting local expectations, it’s exceeding them. 

This comes at an exciting moment in time in which we have recently launched a new transformation programme to ensure our markets are the best they possibly can be. As such, you will deliver and manage this programme by connecting with local businesses to ensure every pitch is taken, including onboarding new small businesses and entrepreneurs to ensure a diverse and interesting array of stalls are on offer. 

Adopting creative approaches to how we can make the markets even more successful, you will have the autonomy to explore new ideas. For example, you will identify employment opportunities within the markets, and you will champion strategies to ensure financial success for our market traders. This will include taking the lead on all communication and social media strategies to promote the markets. You will also create and run a series of year-round events in the market spaces or in other public realm locations, helping the markets increase their profiles, and increasing footfall of shoppers through them. Excitingly, you will also be responsible for designing an approach to pilot new night markets. 

There will inevitably be challenges along the way. For many years, the markets haven’t received the support they needed, so the traders might take some convincing to get onboard with your ideas – such as whether they might benefit from trader education and training sessions. But with plenty of support, you will prove to them that we are here to help their businesses grow, making this a fascinating and fulfilling role in which you can really prove yourself. 

Please refer to the Job Description for more information. 

About You:

Our street markets are the heartbeat of our local communities – and with you on our team, we can go even further in developing them further. To make the most of this challenge, you will therefore have a good understanding of street trading in London, and you will be familiar with Westminster’s markets. Coming from a background in which you have delivered economic development projects ideally within the street trading arena, you will understand the specifics of developing a programme of activities for a new service area within a local authority. As such, we will expect you to have good analytical and problem-solving skills, and you will have a good knowledge of the City of Westminster Act. 

Bringing plenty of resilience to the role, you will be comfortable managing competing priorities for a variety of stakeholders, so your communication skills will be vitally important. As an inspirational leader who can mentor, coach and effectively delegate workloads, you will have the gravitas to get stakeholders working towards a shared goal. 

Westminster City Council is committed to supporting Care Leavers into the workplace. Care Leavers seeking their first job and who wish to be considered under our scheme, will automatically be invited to interview should they meet the essential criteria for the role. 

The Council is committed to achieving diverse shortlists to support our desire to increase the number of staff from underrepresented groups in our workforce. We especially encourage applications from a Global Majority (GM), people who are Black, Asian, Brown, dual-heritage, indigenous to the global south, and or have been racialised as 'ethnic minorities' (formally known as B.A.M.E , Black, Asian and multiple ethnic) background and, while the role is open to all applicants, we will utilise the positive action provisions of the Equality Act 2010 to appoint a candidate from a global majority background where there is a choice between two candidates of equal merit. If you are from a Global Majority background you can self-declare this to the hiring manager as part of our positive action commitments.

What We Offer:

Westminster is an amazing place. We are home to more than 200,000 residents from all backgrounds, over 50,000 vibrant and vital businesses and three-quarters-of-a-million people work in Westminster. Westminster City Council’s strategy is to work towards a Fairer Westminster. A Fairer Westminster is one in which our communities are at the heart of our decision-making and help to determine the city’s future. By working directly with our communities and other partners, we can build a more inclusive city that celebrates our diverse communities, and where residents, workers and visitors from all backgrounds will feel welcome and safe.   

At Westminster City Council, we pride ourselves on being an inclusive workplace and employer of choice. We encourage and welcome applications from people from all backgrounds and aim to have a workforce that, at all levels, represents the communities we serve. We champion equality, diversity, inclusion and wellbeing and aim to create a workplace where everyone feels valued, has a sense of belonging and is empowered to be their best, that is the Westminster Way. To find out more about how we do this visit  https://www.westminster.gov.uk/health-and-social-care/public-health-strategy-policies-and-reports/equality-duties 

As a forward-thinking Council we appreciate that people work in different ways, therefore our staff benefit from working a range of flexible working patterns as well as Agile working.  

The Council is a Disability Confident Employer. If you have declared a disability in your application, we guarantee an interview if you meet the essential criteria of the job. If you are invited for interview, you will be asked if you need any reasonable adjustments in order to attend, and we will make these wherever possible.      

Please note that we reserve the right to extend or close this vacancy early without warning subject to the volume of suitable applicants, so please do apply as soon as possible.