As the Senior Public Affairs Manager at Affinity Water, you will be at the forefront of enhancing Affinity’s reputation with political and regulatory stakeholders. This is an exciting and challenging time for the sector as it moves through the most significant transformation since privatisation.
About Affinity Water
“Affinity Water’s vision is to be the leading community focused water company…
…we provide clean water to 3.5 million customers across the South East. That’s a lot of customers – and a big responsibility, which we take extremely seriously. We are committed to being open and honest about our performance at both a company and community level. We are working hard to reduce our impact on the environment, whilst improving the levels of service our customers receive at the same time. And where customers find themselves in vulnerable circumstances, we’ll always make support a real priority…
…we provide on average 900 million litres of water each day to a population of more than 3.6 million people in parts of Bedfordshire, Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, Essex, Hertfordshire, Surrey, the London Boroughs of Harrow and Hillingdon and parts of the London Boroughs of Barnet, Brent, Ealing and Enfield. We also supply water to the Tendring peninsula in Essex and the Folkestone and Dover areas of Kent.” (Performance Report)
The position
We're looking for someone who is passionate about connecting with stakeholders at all levels, someone who is fantastic at engaging with people to establish an immediate rapport. You will be a politically astute individual who can assist and advise Affinity Water and aid in their business objectives.
Key Responsibilities
- Drives a proactive and coordinated engagement programme to enhance the Affinity Water reputation with political and regulatory stakeholders;
- Acts as a senior advisor to the Affinity Water executive team and provides counsel and strategic oversight to promote public policy positions that support key business objectives;
- Works across business teams so that Affinity Water’s views are positioned effectively with regulatory political and parliamentary stakeholders;
- Works with the Affinity Water External Communications team to maximise opportunities and promote awareness of Affinity Water’s Corporate Responsibility credentials;
- Leads on the implementation of national engagement plans, including stakeholders such as Defra, the Environment Agency and key parliamentary groups.
Success Measures
- Maintains a solid network of contacts across the political spectrum;
- Establishes a structured programme of engagement with key national strategic stakeholders that includes the Affinity Water CEO and executive team;
- Ensures that the Affinity Water representatives/ambassadors understand and can articulate the agreed Corporate Narrative;
- Demonstrates how the Public Affairs and Stakeholder Engagement team is adding value to the business.