Housing Options Manager

West Northamptonshire Council; Northampton; On-site; GBP 40,000 - 55,000; Full time

Job summary

A local government authority in Northampton seeks a Housing Options Manager to lead their housing service, manage homelessness prevention efforts, and ensure compliance with housing legislation. The ideal candidate will have proven leadership skills and a deep understanding of housing and homelessness laws, along with strong collaborative abilities to forge partnerships within the Council and external agencies. This role offers a chance to make a significant impact in the community.

Benefits

Employee benefits

Diversity and inclusion initiatives

Qualifications

• Strong track record in managing housing services.
• Deep understanding of housing and homelessness legislation.
• Skilled in budgeting and strategic planning.

Responsibilities

• Lead and develop the Housing Options service.
• Ensure legal compliance and fair decision-making.
• Forge strong partnerships with internal and external teams.

Skills

Leadership

Negotiation

Influencing

Performance management

Collaboration

Job description

We are seeking a dynamic and experienced Housing Options Manager to lead our dedicated team in preventing and relieving homelessness and finding sustainable housing solutions for those in need. This is a key leadership position where you will:

• Lead with Impact: Manage, motivate, and develop a high‑performing frontline team, fostering a culture of continuous improvement and excellent customer service.
• Drive Performance: Ensure effective performance management and quality assurance frameworks are embedded across the service to ensure high performance and outcomes that are meeting the Council’s strategic goals.
• Navigate Complexity: Oversee the assessment of statutory housing duties, utilising your expert knowledge of the Housing Act 1996, the Homelessness Reduction Act 2017, and related case law to ensure legal compliance and fair decision‑making.
• Innovate Solutions: Develop and implement innovative initiatives to reduce homelessness, improve the quality and reduce the cost, and increase access to suitable housing options in a challenging market.
• Build Partnerships: Forge strong, collaborative relationships with internal teams, elected members, and external agencies (statutory and voluntary) to make homelessness prevention a shared responsibility.

Our benefits

You can also see our full list of employee benefits on our careers site here: Why you should work for us | West Northamptonshire Council.

What will you be doing?

In this role, you will lead, manage, and develop the Housing Options service, ensuring the Council remains high‑performing, compliant, and effective in meeting statutory housing and homelessness duties. You will drive key initiatives that support the wider housing and homelessness agenda. Whilst having knowledge of housing and homelessness legislation, policies and case law is advantageous, we are ideally looking for strong leadership skills in order to make sure we deliver a strong and high‑performing culture, focusing on clearly defined values, open communication, and prioritising employee well‑being. With this in mind, we welcome applications from across the Council as well as within the service.

About you

You’re an experienced leader with a strong track record in managing housing services and driving service improvements. You combine excellent leadership, negotiation and influencing skills with the ability to work collaboratively across teams and partners. You have a deep understanding of housing and homelessness legislation, local government structures, and best practice in service delivery. Skilled in performance management, budgeting, and strategic planning, you thrive in challenging environments and can balance multiple priorities effectively. Your approach is inclusive, customer‑focused, and committed to equality, diversity, and positive cultural change.

About us

At West Northants Council, it’s about our people. People who thrive with ambition, bubble with new ideas, demand better ways of working, caring about every detail, and who never shy away from a challenge. Our culture is a gateway for new experiences. A place to forge new opportunities. To empower you in your career and unite you with like‑minded people. Our vision is ‘to make West Northants a great place to live, work, visit and thrive’. We truly stand by this and work hard every day to make this a reality. Our corporate values, THRIVE, stand for: Trust, High Performance, Respect, Innovate and Empower, they underpin everything we do and how we deliver services. We are committed to ensuring diversity, equality, equity, and inclusion is woven into the fabric of WNC and everything we do, to enable all colleagues to develop and maximize their full potential. We are a disability confident employer, a member of the Armed Forces Covenant, and a Care Leaver Covenant partner. The following film was created by us to communicate our intentions - watch WNC colleagues explain what DEI means to us. If you need additional support or reasonable adjustments during the application process, including needing the job description in another format or language, please email [e-mail] for support. West Northants Council, where careers thrive.