Housing Officer – AR

Carrington Blake Recruitment; Greater London; Hybrid; GBP 30,000 - 40,000; Full time

Job summary

A recruitment agency is seeking a Housing Officer in Greater London to deliver a comprehensive housing management service to tenants. You will manage social housing stock, ensuring high standards of service delivery while working collaboratively within a multidisciplinary team. The successful candidate will possess strong communication skills and experience in customer service, alongside relevant educational qualifications.

Qualifications

• Educated to degree level or equivalent or has relevant work experience.
• 5 GCSEs at grade D or above, including English and Maths.

Responsibilities

• Provide a comprehensive housing management service to tenants and leaseholders.
• Manage Council's social housing stock to high service delivery standards.
• Work as part of a multidisciplinary team delivering efficient housing services.
• Ensure compliance with health and safety policies.

Skills

Understanding of housing service delivery

Knowledge of public sector legislation

Customer service experience

Communication skills

Experience in a diverse environment

Education

Degree level education or equivalent work experience

Tools

Microsoft Word

Microsoft Excel

Microsoft PowerPoint

Job description

Job Title Housing Officer
Pay Grade G8
Directorate Community Services
Division Housing Services
Reports to Resident Services Operational Manager
Location Harrow Civic Centre

Role Purpose

Housing Officers provide a comprehensive housing management service to all Council tenants and lessees across the borough. Housing Officers manage the Councils social housing stock and other assets to a consistently high standard of service delivery across a number of service areas.

Job Context (Key outputs of team / role)

The Resident Services team is part of the Council’s Housing Service, which is within the Adults and Housing Directorate.

Housing Officers work as part of a multi‑disciplinary team delivering an efficient, high quality, reliable, cost effective and customer‑focused housing management service to tenants and leaseholders of Harrow Council.

Generic team – providing a housing management service on a patch basis across a number of service areas
Rent team – prevention work including debt and welfare benefits advice, enforcement action and property recovery. Ensuring compliance with relevant Key performance indicators.
Anti‑Social Behaviour team – case management including prevention initiatives, mediation and enforcement action to include Injunctions, ASBOs and ABCs

Generic Duties

• To demonstrate a commitment to the Council’s Equal Opportunities Policy and the ability to understand and implement the policy in relation to the job responsibilities
• To ensure compliance with your responsibilities as laid out in the council’s health and safety policy and take an active role in promoting a positive health and safety culture
• To promote and participate in the council’s individual performance appraisal and development initiatives and information management best practice
• To ensure compliance with the council’s information security policies and maintain confidentiality
• In accordance with the Immigration Act 2016, where the role is customer‑facing and the post holder is required to speak to members of the public, the ability to converse at ease with customers and provide advice in accurate spoken English is essential for the post

Values, Behaviours and Equalities
We want our colleagues to live our values. These values describe what we stand for and how we do things at Harrow whilst inspiring, challenging and guiding us towards the delivery of our organisational ambitions and goals. Our three values are:
Be Courageous, Do It Together and Make It Happen
These values will also help us to achieve our equalities vision of being a proud, fair & cohesive Harrow, a great place to live, work & visit.

Main Duties / Accountabilities

1. To participate fully in the Council’s IIP, IPAD and training initiatives, information governance initiatives and information management best practice
2. To comply with the role related responsibilities as laid out in the council’s health and safety policy and take an active role in promoting a positive health and safety culture
3. To ensure that all enquiries, whether in person, writing or by telephone, are dealt with in a professional manner and within corporate timescales
4. To deliver the highest standards of customer care at all times
5. To capture, prioritise and initiate action on tenancy and leasehold management issues liaising with partners and other internal and external service providers, adhering to corporate and statutory timescales
6. To operate and maintain databases and any other records including the rent collection system to ensure that information on systems are up to date
7. To operate, maintain and contribute to the development of management arrangements, systems and procedures that ensure effective service delivery and ongoing improvement
8. To ensure the work of the team links effectively with related service provision within or external to the Council, so that coherent and value for money services are provided
9. To deliver services in a way that promotes the Council’s approach to diversity
10. To respond to complaints or anti‑social behaviour using a professional approach, initiating follow up action as appropriate
11. To implement rent arrears recovery procedures, instructing Legal Services and attending court hearings and evictions
12. To monitor the provision of services to our estates including caretaking, grounds maintenance, refuse collection, cleaning, repairs, parking enforcement and abandoned vehicle removal, working with estate team leaders to tackle unsatisfactory areas as necessary
13. To provide leaseholders with comprehensive advice and information in relation to services provided for them
14. To work with tenants/residents’ associations, to ensure a prompt appropriate response to their issues of concern. Attend federation, forum and tenant and resident meetings, as requested and out of hours if required
15. To offer office appointments and home visits at mutually convenient times during normal working hours, carry out home visits outside of these hours if the matter cannot be dealt with as effectively during normal working hours
16. Provide comprehensive advice on all aspects of tenancy management e.g. mutual exchanges, succession and assignment, right to buy, disrepair and transfers
17. Management of empty properties including tenancy sign ups, housing benefit advice, repairs and viewings

Selection Criteria – Knowledge, Skills and Experience

• Understanding of the service delivery, Government Policy, Legislative frameworks and key issues, including equalities issues, relevant to the management of Housing Tenancies
• Working knowledge of housing and related public sector legislation
• Working knowledge of relevant Enforcement Legislation and Approved Codes of Practice as it affects tenants and leaseholders
• Knowledge of basic repairs and maintenance issues in relation to homes and estates
• Knowledge of welfare benefits
• Awareness of the needs of minority groups and of issues that may provide a barrier to meeting needs
• Experience of providing housing services
• Experience of providing and developing services in partnership with other organisations
• Experience of working in a pressured customer focussed environment
• Experience of working in a diverse environment
• Able to use a range of software (Word, PowerPoint, Excel, internet and e‑mail) to a proficient standard
• Able to demonstrate a high standard of written and verbal communication skills, including letter writing and public speaking skills

Qualifications

• Educated to degree level or equivalent or has the equivalent relevant work experience
• 5 GCSEs at grade D or above (to include English and maths) or equivalent level of attainment/educational proficiency acquired through other means

Other Requirements

1. Able to communicate effectively with a wide range of people
2. Able to demonstrate a ‘can do’ approach to solving problems
3. Commitment to ensuring that all groups in the community receive high quality housing management services
4. Ability to plan and prioritise a range of complex tasks to achieve targets and meet deadlines
5. Commitment to proving high quality services in a way that meets customer needs
6. Must have a clear understanding of the diverse nature of Harrow’s communities and the implications for Housing Needs and their impact on Harrow’s residents and service users
7. High standard of personal presentation
8. Physical mobility to visit homes and estates
9. Able to work outside office hours when needed

Job involves travel for business purposes.