Consultant

About the role

Bondstones is seeking to appoint a Consultant (Rural Specialist) to join their team at Hestercombe House, near Taunton. This role involves client-facing rural consultancy work, focusing on rural property, land use, planning opportunity, and development strategy.

Responsibilities

• Meeting clients, visiting sites, and providing clear early-stage advice on rural property and development opportunities.
• Preparing site appraisals, opportunity reviews, feasibility notes, and client-facing advice reports.
• Identifying planning, property, environmental, and commercial constraints affecting rural land and buildings.
• Supporting rural diversification, tourism, equestrian, renewable energy, farm development, change of use, and rural business projects.
• Working with the planning team on permitted development, prior notifications, planning applications, certificates of lawfulness, appeals, and enforcement matters.
• Working with the architectural team to help clients understand development potential, design direction, site constraints, and practical next steps.
• Reviewing planning history, site constraints, land-use context, access, services, occupancy issues, existing buildings, and wider development potential.
• Helping to prepare fee proposals, project scopes, and supporting delivery of the Stepping Stones™ process.
• Coordinating input from external specialists where required, including ecologists, landscape consultants, heritage consultants, drainage consultants, transport consultants, and other advisers.
• Maintaining clear client records, internal notes, and project updates.
• Contributing to Bondstones' rural consultancy knowledge base and helping improve their advice process over time.

Benefits

• A beautiful working location with onsite parking, café, and access to 45 acres of landscaped grounds.
• Dog-friendly office.
• Enhanced Employee Assistance Programme.
• 20 days’ basic holiday, plus birthday leave, Christmas and New Year closure, and public holidays.

Pay

The salary is £30,000 to £35,000+, depending on experience, capability, and expected fee-earning contribution. The workplace pension is 8%.

Schedule

The role is full-time or flexible full-time arrangement. Start date is immediate or by agreement.