Strategic Housing Officer

West Northamptonshire Council; Northampton; On-site; GBP 40,000 - 60,000; Full time

Job summary

A local housing authority in Northampton is looking for a candidate to lead the development and implementation of housing strategies. The role involves negotiating affordable housing projects and collaborating with various stakeholders to ensure effective housing delivery. Candidates should have significant experience in strategic housing and strong negotiation skills. The organization values diversity and inclusion, offering opportunities for personal and professional growth in a supportive work environment.

Qualifications

• Proven experience in strategic housing, planning policy, or housing enabling.
• Strong negotiation skills and understanding of development economics.
• Ability to lead projects, influence stakeholders, and deliver results.
• Knowledge of housing legislation, S106 agreements, and affordable housing delivery mechanisms.

Responsibilities

• Drive housing strategy and policy development.
• Negotiate affordable housing through planning and viability assessments.
• Lead innovative affordable housing delivery projects.
• Build strong partnerships with developers and communities.
• Secure funding and optimise resources to meet housing needs.

Skills

Strategic housing experience

Negotiation skills

Project leadership

Knowledge of housing legislation

Job description

Overview

This role is critical and offers a unique opportunity to shape strategies and a policy framework and will be involved in a wide range of strategic and enabling activities. You will help lead on, create, deliver and monitor the Council's Housing strategies and ensure that homelessness and housing delivery are core elements to other housing related strategies. You will work with our internal planning and development teams and housing providers/developers to increase the delivery of new affordable homes to help meet the growing demand across West Northamptonshire. This will involve providing advice and negotiating the provision of new homes. You will ensure there is up-to-date research and information to enable informed decision making related to affordable housing. You will be key in furthering and developing partnerships with internal partners, delivery partners, developers, Registered Providers and other statutory and voluntary agencies in developing affordable housing, preventing homelessness to support the delivery of sustainable housing solutions across West Northamptonshire.

Responsibilities

• Drive housing strategy and policy development.
• Negotiate affordable housing through planning and viability assessments.
• Lead innovative affordable housing delivery projects, including property acquisitions for homelessness prevention.
• Build strong partnerships with developers, registered providers, Homes England, and local communities.
• Secure funding and optimise resources to meet housing needs.

Qualifications

• Proven experience in strategic housing, planning policy, or housing enabling.
• Strong negotiation skills and understanding of development economics.
• Ability to lead projects, influence stakeholders, and deliver results.
• Knowledge of housing legislation, S106 agreements, and affordable housing delivery mechanisms.

About West Northants Council

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.