Head of Service - Solutions WCC624134

All applications must apply via Starfish. No applications will be considered via any other method. Please do not apply via the SuccessFactors job portal.

Salary range: £79,005 - £98,472 per annum; salary negotiable depending upon experience.

Work location: Westminster City Hall, 64 Victoria Street, Westminster, SW1E 6QPHours per week: 36

Contract type: Permanent

Closing date: 31 May 2026

Interview date: June 2026

About Us: Housing Needs in Westminster City Council is a world of extraordinary stories. For leaders like Marleen, leadership is felt most clearly through the people they support and the service they help shape.

The Role: As Head of Service for Housing and Housing Solutions, you too can make a powerful contribution. Westminster City Council’s vision is to build a Fairer Westminster – a city that supports and celebrates its communities through social justice, effective leadership and high-quality services. Delivering Fairer Housing is a core pillar of this ambition and central to addressing inequality across the city. Demand for housing support is at unprecedented levels, with increasing complexity of need.

This role combines strategic leadership with real operational impact. You will lead the Council’s solutions-focused approach to housing need, with a strong emphasis on prevention, early intervention and sustainable outcomes. Shaping how Westminster supports access to housing, manages allocations to social housing, and secures private rented sector options, so that we can reduce reliance on temporary accommodation and reactive responses. And you’ll ensure that our plans are safe, compliant and cost-effective.

It’s crucial that you have the confidence to lead change and service stability in a political environment. You will manage multiple stakeholder relationships including fellow Heads of Service, senior officers, elected members, landlords, agents and community partners. You’ll work to resolve cross-cutting issues across the Council. Therefore, it’s important that you have a strong visible leadership presence across the office and wider community. You’ll look for opportunities for the Council to diversify our connections, through partners and voluntary organisations.

As Head of Service, you’ll oversee the work of our purpose-driven team, including the Allocations and Advice and Housing Register teams and their Delivery Leads. You’ll promote high-performance, strategic thinking and innovation. We are passionate about continuous improvement – so you’ll help us to embed data and feedback from residents into how we move forward.

In taking up this position, you’ll have the opportunity to make a lasting, city-wide change, embed new ways of working, and help to create a more sustainable housing system for our residents.

You’ll bring strong leadership and expertise in housing legislation, prevention practice and customer experience to this role. This was built through working at a senior strategic level within a local authority, government office, or voluntary sector organisation focused on housing need or homelessness prevention. You have a proven track record in delivering and improving services.

As a leader, you’ve developed and managed diverse multi-disciplinary teams to great success. You’re focused on inspiring a team to deliver high-quality, resident-focused outcomes. And you’re comfortable helping teams adjust to complex change initiatives.

Collaboration with stakeholders is key to this role. We’d like to hear about your experiences building relationships with government agencies, community organisations and residents, including those in senior positions. When issues arise, you’ve been able to respond with empathy and clear reasoning. Strong verbal and written communication skills help you to manage these situations.

It’s important that you have an excellent knowledge of local government. You’re able to think about housing solutions and prevention services within their political context. This will be paired with an interest in housing policy, legislation and advocacy efforts.

As this role will come with financial responsibility, you’ll bring experience in managing budgets and resources effectively, ensuring our sustainability and growth. As we value data-driven decision-making, you’ll have familiarity with performance metrics and analytics.

We’re interested to learn about any qualifications, though these are not essential.

Westminster City Council is committed to supporting Care Leavers into the workplace. Care Leavers seeking their first job and who wish to be considered under our scheme, will automatically be invited to interview should they meet the essential criteria for the role.

The Council is committed to achieving diverse shortlists to support our desire to increase the number of staff from underrepresented groups in our workforce. We especially encourage applications from a Global Majority (GM), people who are Black, Asian, Brown, dual-heritage, indigenous to the global south, and or have been racialised as 'ethnic minorities' background and, while the role is open to all applicants, we will utilise the positive action provisions of the Equality Act 2010 to appoint a candidate from a global majority background where there is a choice between two candidates of equal merit. If you are from a Global Majority background you can self-declare this to the hiring manager as part of our positive action commitments.

What We Offer: Westminster is an amazing place. We are home to more than 200,000 residents from all backgrounds, over 50,000 vibrant and vital businesses and three-quarters-of-a-million people work in Westminster. Westminster City Council is one in which our communities are at the heart of our decision-making and help to determine the city’s future. By working directly with our communities and other partners, we can build a more inclusive city that celebrates our diverse communities, and where residents, workers and visitors from all backgrounds will feel welcome and safe.

At Westminster City Council, we pride ourselves on being an inclusive workplace and employer of choice. We encourage and welcome applications from people from all backgrounds and aim to have a workforce that, at all levels, represents the communities we serve. We champion equality, diversity, inclusion and wellbeing and aim to create a workplace where everyone feels valued, has a sense of belonging and is empowered to be their best, that is Our Westminster Way.

To find out more about how we do this visit a forward-thinking Council we appreciate that people work in different ways, therefore our staff benefit from working a range of flexible working patterns as well as Agile working.

The Council is a Disability Confident Employer. If you have declared a disability in your application, we guarantee an interview if you meet the essential criteria of the job. If you are invited for interview, you will be asked if you need any reasonable adjustments in order to attend, and we will make these wherever possible.

We reserve the right to extend or close this vacancy early without warning subject to the volume of suitable applicants.