Neighbourhood Housing Officer - Gosport Borough Council

Portsmouth City Council; Forton; On-site; GBP 35,000 - 40,000; Full time

Job summary

A local authority in England seeks a Neighbourhood Management Officer to provide comprehensive services for approximately 350 properties. You will engage with customers to resolve tenancy issues, manage anti-social behaviour, and ensure effective rental income collection. The role may require home visits, court attendance, and evening meetings. Strong customer service and communication skills are a must, alongside a good understanding of housing law. The salary is competitive, with a flexible 37-hour workweek.

Qualifications

• Passion for social housing and commitment to customer service.
• Ability to handle difficult situations and complex customers.
• Excellent literacy and numeracy skills for documentation.
• Good understanding of housing law and debt management.
• Ability to work under pressure and manage competing priorities.

Responsibilities

• Provide comprehensive neighbourhood management service.
• Engage with customers to resolve tenancy issues.
• Manage rental income and respond to anti-social behaviour.
• Conduct home visits and property inspections.
• Attend court when necessary to address tenancy breaches.

Skills

Customer service skills

Communication skills

Interpersonal skills

Time management

Problem-solving

Empathy

IT skills

Tools

Microsoft Office

Job description

GBC Housing Service manages over 3,000 council houses and flats, some for older persons and some as temporary accommodation. It manages a varied commercial property portfolio dealing with licences, concessions and a mobile home park.

The Housing Service works in partnership with a range of contractors, its main partner is Kier, providing a range of responsive repairs, planned programme of works and an out of hours service.

The service provides a Housing Options service to meet the local authorities' statutory duties to support housing advice, housing need and homelessness services in the Borough.

It is clear that GBC Property and Housing staff have a passion for Gosport as a place and want to see it prosper. They take pride in working for GBC and are proud of all the Council has achieved. The service has demonstrated a determination in the face of unprecedented financial and policy change which has strengthened the resolve and those qualities will be essential over the next few years.

What is the role?

Well managed communities promote a sense of pride and provide a better quality of life for residents. The Neighbourhood Management team have a key role to play in ensuring the Housing Service, residents and partner agencies such as the police, social services and health work together to promote the social, environmental and economic well‑being of neighbourhoods. You will be part of a generic team responsible for providing a comprehensive, customer focussed neighbourhood management service, delivering a full range of housing management activities to a patch of approximately 350 properties.

This is a varied and challenging role with many competing priorities but it's not without any reward. You will achieve great satisfaction knowing that your efforts can make a real difference to the lives of our customers.

A key element of this role is to provide appropriate advice and support when needed to enable people to solve problems and cope to stay in their homes. You will do this by engaging with customers to understand their circumstances and identify the barriers that prevent them from meeting their responsibilities as a tenant. This will involve working with relevant internal and external departments and partner agencies to help customers engage with appropriate support so they can sustain their tenancies.

You will be required to prioritise your time to ensure that you can respond to a range of rental income and debts, tenancy issues and void property demand. You will do this by fully understanding the customer’s circumstances, including their financial circumstances, via face‑to‑face interviews, home visits and telephone communication.

You will robustly work with customers to maximise rental income, effectively respond to reported anti‑social behaviour and take appropriate action for breaches of tenancy conditions. This will include attendance at court when required. You will have the confidence and tenacity to engage with customers and address challenging issues such as Anti Social Behaviour to resolution.

You will be required to carry out void property inspections, managing the process from a tenant giving notice to re‑letting the accommodation in a timely manner.

There is a requirement to undertake home visits and occasionally work outside normal office hours. During these times you may attend residents meetings or seek contact with customers who have not responded to you during office hours.

Qualifications and experience

We are looking for highly motivated individuals with a passion for social housing who can demonstrate a commitment to excellent customer service coupled with a positive attitude when faced with challenging situations. You should be calm, capable and good with people, ready to listen to their issues and determined to resolve any problems. Strong communication and interpersonal skills are essential.

• Is customer focussed and able to consistently demonstrate high standards of customer service, and has experience of working in a challenging front line service with the ability to handle difficult and stressful situations.
• The Service is fast‑paced and you will be required to deal with challenging, complex and difficult customers at times. You will need to demonstrate excellent communication and coaching skills to build a positive rapport with tenants and motivate them to take responsibility in adhering to their tenancy agreement and work with the Council.
• Empathy and understanding is key to building relationships. In order to help customers when they are in a crisis situation, you will need to demonstrate excellent people skills, and the ability to communicate effectively and transparently to ensure customers understand the options available to them and the consequences of their choices.
• You must be able to demonstrate excellent literacy and numeracy skills as you will be required to record information accurately and write clear and concise letters which explain policy, legislation and decisions. The post holder will also be expected to prepare professional documents to be used in case conferences or as evidence in court.
• You will have a good understanding of housing law, social housing regulations, rental income collection and anti‑social behaviour remedies.
• You will have an awareness of the welfare benefits system and debt management provisions.
• Is passionate and enthusiastic about providing effective help and advice for customers to achieve positive outcomes, and able to suggest innovative solutions to problems.
• Is able to manage their time effectively and professionally, even when competing priorities and heavy workloads challenge you personally.
• Is pro‑active and highly motivated with the ability to work quickly, accurately and consistently when under pressure.
• Is confident and assertive, able to ask the right questions in the right way to uncover the facts. They must be able to manage customer's expectations and have the ability to robustly challenge and say no when appropriate.
• Has good IT skills including use of Microsoft Office applications.

Special Conditions

The post holder will be required to hold a full current driving licence and have a car available for which essential user car allowance will be paid, while the duties and responsibilities of the post justify it.

You may be required to attend evening meetings as appropriate.

Pay and working hours

Pay Grade: 7, Salary: £35,412 - £39,152 per annum.

Full time: 37 hours per week, normally Monday to Friday, in accordance with Council's scheme of flexible working hours.

The post holder may be required to work outside normal office hours from time to time.

GBC and PCC are working in partnership to the mutual advantage of both authorities. GBC remains an autonomous local authority with a housing service based in Gosport.