As a Housing Officer, you can make your own powerful contribution to Westminster’s success. You’ll manage a designated patch of properties, delivering a friendly and professional housing management service to residents, leaseholders and service users across the city.
You’ll take ownership of your patch, making sure issues are progressed, residents are kept informed, and services work together around the needs of the community. This means working closely with teams such as Housing Income, ASB, Leasehold Services, Repairs, Housing Solutions, Estate Services, Customer Services, Major Works, Development and other partners to resolve issues and improve the day-to-day experience of residents.
You’ll be a visible presence on estates, carrying out home visits, quarterly estate inspections, local surgeries and resident meetings. You’ll lead on estate action plans, working with residents’ groups and stakeholders to identify priorities, track progress and publicise improvements.
A big part of the role is supporting vulnerable residents. You’ll investigate concerns, make referrals, attend case conferences where needed and work with services such as Social Services, Mental Health, Drug and Alcohol services and Floating Support. You’ll also make welfare calls, support victims of domestic violence and help residents access the right support at the right time.
You’ll manage a varied caseload of housing management activity, including tenancy sign-ups and terminations, succession applications, assignments, mutual exchanges, flexible tenancy reviews, tenancy audits, under-occupation visits, healthy home visits and management transfer requests. You’ll also support fraud investigations, short-let prevention, Airbnb complaints, leasehold enforcement, access to properties, decants and payments such as disturbance payments, decoration allowances, rent refunds, cash incentives and Home Loss Payments.
When tenancy issues arise, you’ll deal with them fairly and professionally. This may include managing low-level nuisance, working with the ASB team, responding to tenancy agreement breaches and taking enforcement action where needed – from serving notices and preparing witness statements to attending court or evictions in line with procedure.
You’ll also help manage the lettings process, working with Repairs to pre-inspect void properties, arranging viewings, completing sign-ups and making sure new residents understand their tenancy agreement and handbook. Post sign-up visits will help support tenancy sustainment and make sure people settle in well.
In addition to this, you’ll respond to call-back requests, emails, letters, complaints, Member and MP enquiries within agreed timeframes, keeping records accurate and communications clear. You’ll also support reception on a rota, assist with legal or information requests such as GDPR and Freedom of Information, and take on other work as directed by managers.
This is a busy, high-profile, and sometimes demanding front-line role in a political environment, so you’ll need to stay neutral, professional and focused on delivering the best possible service. There may be evening meetings, out-of-hours emergencies or service demands that require flexibility. With a positive attitude, good organisation, a willingness to learn digital systems and a strong commitment to equality and diversity, you’ll help improve lives across Westminster’s communities.
Please refer to the Job Description for more information.
