Assistant District Licensing Officer, South England

Salary: £26,550 pa + company benefits
• Duration: Full time (32hrs/wk, Monday to Thursday)
• Location: Home-based in the South of England, in or near one of the following counties:
East Sussex, West Sussex, Hampshire, Oxfordshire
• Closing date for applications: 5pm, Sunday 7th September 2025

We aim to notify you by Thursday 11th September 2025 if you have been selected for interview.

Interviews are likely to be held during the weeks commencing 15th or 22nd September 2025.

Please note that we may close applications early if we receive a high volume of interest, soearly applications are encouraged.

Expected start date: November 2025 (or earlier if possible)

Company Background

Great crested newts have declined dramatically in the UK over the last 50 years and althoughstill widespread across lowland England they are no longer common. Despite protection under UKand European wildlife law, numbers are still declining, and habitat loss is their biggestthreat.

In 2018 the Nature Space District Licensing Scheme was launched – set up in partnership with national freshwater and amphibian Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) as well as sevenplanning authorities across the South Midlands. Since then, the Scheme has expanded nationally and now covers over 60 planning authorities across Bedfordshire, Berkshire, Buckinghamshire,East Sussex, Gloucestershire, Hampshire, Milton Keynes, Northamptonshire, Oxfordshire,Staffordshire, Surrey and West Sussex.

The Scheme allows planning authorities to authorise (under strictly defined terms) activities that affect great crested newts at the same time as they grant planning permission. The District Licensing Scheme has significant advantages for newt conservation and widerbiodiversity benefits through fully funded region-wide conservation strategies that create high-quality habitat at a landscape scale and deliver long-term management and monitoring fornewts, which are delivered via our partners at the Newt Conservation Partnership.

The schemebenefits developers because the licensing process for great crested newts is simplified andstreamlined.

Nature Space also works with national infrastructure providers, such as Network Rail, to helpthem secure and deliver 'Organisational Licences' for protected species with the sameconservation deliverables. The schemes are administered by Nature Space, are regulated andapproved by Natural England, and are supported by the country’s leading amphibian andfreshwater NGOs – Amphibian and Reptile Conservation and Freshwater Habitats Trust.

The Nature Space Operations Team

The Operations Team currently consists of 12 county-based District Licensing Officers, who areemployed to support planning authorities in the areas covered by the District Licensing Scheme(as listed above); and a national support team. The team are responsible for providing impartial comments on planning applications, delivering training to the planning authorities and helping them with the relevant licensing paperwork, monitoring compliance and collatinginformation for reporting annually to Natural England.

The team is led by the Operations Manager.

The Role

The Assistant District Licensing Officer will be line-managed by the Senior District Licensing Officer for the South of England and will support the team across the Southern Region with abusy case load. Training will be provided.

We’re looking for someone with knowledge of great crested newt ecology, wildlife legislation and the planning system, who is well-organised, a good communicator and able to carry out avariety of tasks to support the South region with a growing workload.

Key responsibilities:
• Providing support and assistance to the District Licensing Officers and Senior District Licensing Officer in the South of England (East and West Sussex, Hampshire and Isle of White,and Oxfordshire), which will involve assessing and commenting on planning applications,assisting with project management, compliance checking tasks and responding to queries fromplanners, ecologists and developers.
• Supporting partner Local Planning Authorities (LPAs) with the implementation of their greatcrested newt (GCN) District Licence and work in partnership to…