Neighbourhood Housing Officer - Gosport Borough Council

HOUSING SERVICES

Pay Grade: 7, Salary: £34,314 - £37,938 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.

Gosport Borough Council (GBC) and Portsmouth City Council (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. GBC Housing Service is responsible for managing over 3,000 council houses and flats, some of which are dedicated to older persons and some as temporary accommodation. The service 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 Gosport 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 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 as well as partner agencies to help customers engage with appropriate support so that 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 customers' 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 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.

Who are we looking for?

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 as you will need to be confident working with other agencies to deliver positive outcomes for customers.

We are looking for somebody who:

• 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 be able 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 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 formal letters which explain policy and legislation.
• 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, 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 customers' expectations and have the ability to 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, whilst the duties and responsibilities of the post justify it. You may be required to attend evening meetings as appropriate. There may also be an occasional need to visit customers in their homes outside normal working hours.

How to apply:

To ensure your application matches the requirements of the role, please fully review the "job profile". This is important or you are likely not to be short listed. Please ensure you read and follow the guidance so you can demonstrate how you meet the criteria listed on the 12 points under the 'You need to' heading on the "job profile". PLEASE DO NOT JUST SUBMIT A CV. Email your submission to gbcrecruitment@gosport.gov.uk

If you would like an informal chat about the role, please contact Roz Weaver or Denise Hudson on 02392 545665.

Closing Date: Sunday 15th June 2025

Assessment and interview Day: Monday 23rd June 2025

All applicants will be advised once short listing has been completed after the closing date.

General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR): As part of any recruitment process, Gosport Borough Council collects and processes personal data relating to job applicants. Gosport Borough Council is committed to being transparent about how it collects and uses that data and to meeting its data protection obligations under the General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR). Completing and sending an application in for a vacancy is your consent for us to process your data for the purpose of the recruitment. Your data is not used in any other way and you can withdraw your consent at any point in the recruitment process and we will destroy or delete your information. For more detailed information on what we collect how we use, store, delete data and your rights you can access a privacy statement on the Council's website.