Service Charge Business Partner in Basingstoke

SNG (Sovereign Network Group) is one of the largest housing associations in England. We provide 86,000 homes and invest in communities across London, the South East, South West and East of England, as well as aiming to create thousands of new affordable homes every year.

We have a fantastic opportunity for a Service Charge Business Partner to join our Service Charges team. Based from our offices in Basingstoke or Wembley, you'll share your time between the office and home in line with our hybrid approach. There will be regular travel to both offices to ensure team collaboration.

The Role

Reporting into the Head of Service Charge Setting and Administration, you'll work within the Service Charge team to enhance the relationship and collaboration between the service charge teams and other stakeholder functions that interact with and support accurate and transparent service charge management, in line with legal and regulatory requirements. You'll also focus on leading continuous service improvement for the service charge function. This will include reviewing existing processes to ensure they meet business requirements and are future-ready, automation of processes where feasible, and making recommendations to maintain efficient and effective systems and processes for service charges administration across all regions within SNG.

Responsibilities include:

• Working closely with the Head of Service Charge Setting and Administration to identify service improvement opportunities across regions, tenures, and services which lead to enhanced data analysis of service charge expenditure and recoverability and other related activities.
• Reviewing existing data coding structure and configurations in legacy service charge systems, making recommendations to support accurate and transparent service charge delivery.
• Analysing service charge data and key performance indicators to identify trends and areas for improvement, implementing strategies to optimise service charge income and effectively address and support service charge under-recovery issues.
• Supporting continuous improvement initiatives and helping to identify skill gaps within the service charge teams, recommending initiatives to enhance their capacity and capability for optimal performance.
• Collaborating with service charge teams and other stakeholders to address operational challenges and implement changes for effective teamwork, proactively supporting efficient service charge management through involvement in major contract arrangements, including repairs and maintenance, energy, and other insourcing and outsourcing services.
• Developing and maintaining documentation for quality improvement in the end-to-end service charge process and supporting the updating of service charge policies and procedures as needed.
• Managing the team with a focus on articulating a clear vision, providing direction, and promoting a culture of accountability, high performance, and continuous improvement.

What we need from you

You'll be a Part Qualified Accountant (ACA, CIMA, ACCA) or Qualified by Experience with strong knowledge of service charges and relevant legislation. You'll also have:

• Strong skills in analysing and problem solving to find improvement opportunities and create effective solutions.
• Solid understanding of quality improvement principles, methodologies, frameworks and best practices.
• Strong project management skills, with the ability to prioritise tasks and meet deadlines.
• Effective communication skills, including the ability to translate complex financial information to colleagues, verbally and in writing or through reports.
• Ability to work independently and proactively.
• Demonstrable ability to work collaboratively across teams, demonstrating strong relationship-building and influencing skills.
• Familiar with data management systems and quality improvement tools like process mapping, root cause analysis, and performance dashboards.

Benefits at SNG include:

• 25 Days Holiday + Bank Holidays (with an extra day every year up to 30 days).
• Chance to buy or sell holiday as part of our flexible benefits package.
• 3 additional wellbeing days and 2 paid volunteering days.
• Generous matched pension scheme up to 12% and Life cover at 4x salary.
• Enhanced maternity/paternity/adoption pay.
• Options for private medical insurance, dental insurance and critical illness cover.
• Wellbeing discounts, including Gym Memberships and access to a 24/7 virtual GP service.

At Sovereign Network Group, we are passionate about inclusion for all and creating a workplace where everyone can thrive. We are committed to our Equality Diversity and Inclusion strategy and believe that you can truly be yourself at SNG.