Finance Specialist - Rent and Service Charges in East London

Gateway Housing has been supporting communities to thrive since 1926. We are an ambitious London based housing association with over 3,000 homes in the heart of London's East End. We provide social rented homes, shared ownership, and sheltered housing. We develop new homes too and are part way through an exciting programme to deliver another 250 homes by 2025. We also run our own in-house maintenance service, Gateway Homeworks. Our vision is that people will want to live in a Gateway home and people will want to work at Gateway.

You will be joining the organisation at an exciting time and be a key member of a dynamic team that wants to deliver great landlord services and strengthen our links to the local community.

Our values

Our values add up to P.A.C.E. Passionate, Accountable, Connected, Excellence. As a community housing association based in the East End for nearly 100 years, we’re proud of the work we do to address the housing crisis through building and managing great homes.

The role

We are looking for a Finance Specialist - Rent & Service Charges to take ownership of all rent accounting processes, leading the preparation, accounting and management of rents, including annual rent increases. The post holder will support the Customer Services directorate and Finance Business Partner - Customer Services to resolve customer queries and issues related to rents and service charges. A strong focus on delivery, change management, problem solving and an ethos of customer service, combined with a strong character and a good sense of humour will be required to succeed in this exciting and rewarding role.

Accountabilities

• Lead the preparation of rental income budgets and annual increases, in-year actuals and variance analysis, monitoring and control of rental income, preparation of in-year forecasts and adjustments.
• Collaborate with the Finance Specialist - Service Charges & Rents in ensuring accurate, reliable and timely completion of all key processes relevant to this role.
• Ownership of the preparation, accounting and management of rental income and supporting service charges and other services for the customer services directorate.
• Provide ad-hoc support to the Finance Business Partner - Business Services in the absence of the Finance Specialist - Accounts Payable.
• Managing the end-to-end process for direct debits including arrears calculations and correspondence.
• Preparing monthly key control account reconciliations for rent control accounts.

Key Skills, Knowledge and Experience:

• Experience in performing, understanding and analysing accounting transactions relating to rent and service charges.
• Experience in preparation of rent accounting and service charge budgets, estimates and actuals.
• AAT qualified or part qualified accountant or suitable alternative commensurate experience.
• Knowledge of regulatory framework of UK social housing and policies and legislation affecting accounts payable.
• Knowledge of database management and data analysis tools.
• Knowledge of rent and service charge calculations including good practice.
• Strong verbal and written communication skills.
• Strong digital skills including Excel and specialist finance systems.
• High levels of attention to detail.

Salary and benefits

Our benefits package includes:

• Annual Leave: starting at 28 days, plus Bank Holidays.
• Subsidised Health and Wellbeing Membership.
• Simply Health - help towards the costs of dentist, optician, and private medical appointments.
• Employee Assistance Programme - including free legal, financial and counselling advice.
• Pension - up to 10% employer contribution.

If you have the confidence and enthusiasm to work in a challenging but supportive working environment, we would like to hear from you.

Please note only shortlisted candidates will be contacted.

CLOSING DATE: Friday 16th May 2025

INTERVIEWS: TBC

Please note that on some occasions where we have received sufficient applications, we will close the vacancy earlier than the closing date advertised.

GATEWAY is an equal opportunities employer and welcomes applications from all sections of the community.