Alex - Property Services Intern 2026

I applied for the Strategic Property Internship at West Suffolk Council during my fourth year out of five studying for an integrated masters in Statistics. Approaching the end of my degree, I knew I wanted to be able to use the skills learnt throughout my degree somewhere where I could help society at large but had no idea what form that would take. However, when I came across the advertisement for their internship scheme, I was really impressed by the breadth of areas the scheme covered and the wide range of development support on offer. I decided to take a chance on Suffolk and have had an absolutely great time!

Property Services at West Suffolk Council cover the day-to-day estate management of the council’s non-operational land and property assets, including lettings, disposals, acquisitions, rent reviews, lease renewals, assignments and other lease events. In my time as part of the Strategic Property team, I have been involved in several large development projects involving land in West Suffolk that is being developed to bring new businesses and services to the area. I’ve felt extremely lucky to be able to see how our team approaches challenges, their adaptability and range of skills, and be there to celebrate milestones for years-long projects.

Over my 12 weeks I have been able to work on a wide range of tasks. I have researched a diverse range of case law and written about how my findings apply to specific projects, created resources about updates to professional standards, and drafted documents such as an Officer’s Decision Record. I have also been able to attend a Development Control Committee and help out at Crucial Crew, an event for local children about to start secondary school. I have really been able to develop my written communication skills and have my first experiences of project management on such a large scale.

One of the best parts of this internship has been getting to work with the interns both on our everyday tasks and for our intern group project. This year we worked on promoting the new Landlord Retrofit HUB to landlords, in addition to the council’s existing energy saving grants and services. Our intern group has gotten along really well and getting to use all our different skills to lead a project together has been a really valuable experience. We’ve also been able to do lots of fun things together, like running our stall at local markets, going out to dinner, and even doing an escape room!

Everyone I have met at the council over the course of my internship has been so friendly and supportive. Thank you so much to my manager and the rest of the Strategic Property team for making me feel so welcome and included during my time in Suffolk.