​***This is a secondment or fixed term contract opportunity up to 31 March 2026***

About the role

After a successful five years of getting landlords to remediate high rise blocks with unsafe cladding, JIT, the national fire safety Joint Inspection Team, is recruiting a Principal Advisor: Fire. The contract is for up to 31.3.26, but there are ongoing discussions with Government about extending the JIT team. 

This is a unique opportunity to be at the cutting edge of making buildings safe, and working with key regulators. 

The JIT is a multi-disciplinary team comprised of a fire engineer, a building controller, Environmental Health professionals (we use Housing Act 2004 legislation to do HHSRS risk assessments of the fire safety in blocks), an intelligence officer, and legal advisors.  In this role you would be an expert advising the team on site, and feeding into the report along with JIT colleagues. 

Most of the team’s work involves site inspections (up to two days), preparation ahead of the inspection, and follow up work, including drafting reports and helping councils to enforce using Housing Act 2004.  The team also delivers training courses to local authority staff to help them undertake their own enforcement.  The team is based in London, but you will be required to travel across the country to carry out site inspections, and to advise local authorities.  There are opportunities for home working: but attending site inspection sis crucial.  All hotels and travel to site inspections are paid for by the LGA.  The JIT team is funded by Central Government, but is independent in all professional judgements - our clients are local authorities.

About you

We need a Principal Advisor - Fire with experience of inspecting high-rise residential blocks. You will need to be knowledgeable, thorough, flexible, and be a good team player.

About us

The Local Government Association (LGA) is the national membership body for local authorities. We work on behalf of our member councils to support, promote and improve local government.   We are a politically led, cross-party organisation that works on behalf of councils to ensure local government has a strong, credible voice with national government. We influence and set the political agenda on the issues that matter to councils to help them deliver local solutions to national problems.   We also provide councils with the tools and resources to respond to challenges present and emerging, and support improvement across the sector.  

We value diversity and encourage applications from all sections of the community to this high-profile role.

To apply

Click "Apply Now" to submit your CV and supporting statement. Please disregard the word count suggestions for your supporting statement and ensure that it does not exceed 800 words.

We are specifically assessing candidates against the following criteria, please keep these in mind in your application:

Qualifications

• Member grade with IFE

Knowledge and Experience

• Fire safety and legal proceedings, prosecutions and expert witness work (prosecution and defence), central Government.

• Experience working with the various iterations of approved document, in high-rise domestic buildings.

• Report writing, and policy development

Skills and Abilities

• Excellent interpersonal skills, with the ability to influence and negotiate with a wide range of stakeholders effectively.

• Flexible approach to work, with a keenness to adapt to meet changing work requirements.   

If you would like more information or a chat about the role, please email Brian Castle brian.castle@local.gov.uk

Closing Date: 20 April 2025

Interview Date: 14 May 2025, in person at 18 Smith Square

Full Principal Advisor - Fire Job Description

Our benefits

• LGA annual leave entitlement is 29 days, rising to 31 days after three years’ service and to 33 days after five years’ service, plus all UK public holidays (pro rata for fixed term and part time contracts).

• Flexible & agile working – office-based staff are required to work in the LGA’s London office two days per week as a minimum, subject to business need and this may vary significantly between different roles and from week to week. 

• Future development – face-to-face and virtual courses are scheduled in line with developmental goals 

• The LGA offers 24/7 access to a free, confidential employee assistance programme managed by Health Assured. This service is also available for Dependants. 

• Family friendly policies 

For more of LGA’s benefits and working with us, please view our webpage https://www.local.gov.uk/benefits-and-working-lga 

Our values & behaviours 

Our Values and Behaviours are there to give us an understanding of who we are as an organisation and who we want to be. They are a framework to help us understand: 

• how we work with each other  

• how we work with our members and stakeholders 

• our expectations for ourselves and each other  

Our values are: 

Inclusive - We ensure that our work is inclusive of all voices.  

Ambitious - We are ambitious for councils and their communities and are committed to striving for excellence in all that we do to support our colleagues, our membership and the sector to deliver the best possible outcomes. 

Collaborative - We bring together the expertise and skills needed, working as one team.