Housing Standards Officer

The Role

As a Housing Standards Officer, you too can make a powerful contribution. This role will sit within the Environmental Health Service, as part of the new selective licensing scheme. Our aim is to ensure that every resident, business or visitor of Westminster will thrive in a clean, safe and quiet city. By harnessing your knowledge of private sector housing, you will safeguard standards relating to people’s health and well-being, contributing to the council’s objectives and priorities.

Our team values inclusion. We are made up of environmental officers and licensing support officers, all with the shared goal of improving living conditions for residents. Learn from and be supported by senior colleagues who place great value on innovation and professional growth.

A key aspect of your role will be improving housing standards through engagement, education, and formal action, in accordance with your level of authorisation. You’ll ensure that private renters’ homes are safe, free from hazards and well managed. Further to this, you will be proactive in helping landlords to understand and meet regulatory requirements. If a landlord fails to engage, you will hold them to account.

As a Housing Standards Officer, you will carry out routine or unplanned visits and inspections to ensure compliance with legislation, including licence conditions. You’ll respond to complaints of a residential nature, and with guidance from senior officers, draft notices and schedules of work. All complaints and concerns will be dealt with in a timely, efficient manner, directed at securing a resolution. At times, you’ll have to balance differing expectations, perspectives and priorities from residents, landlords, council members, and external agencies. With them all, your focus will be ensuring legal compliance and that enforcement actions are effective.

In instances where enforcement action is necessary, you will have to gather the right intelligence, keep records well, initiate legal proceedings, prepare and give evidence in court.

This is brilliant opportunity to have direct impact on the lives our residents, creating a safer and fairer environment for them to live in. You’ll play a key role in ensuring that housing standards are met, enforcing property licencing, and holding rogue landlords to account. Westminster has some of the most high-profile and complex housing issues in the country, making it an invigorating place to develop your career and expertise. We encourage you to embrace your professional development, through seizing learning opportunities and ongoing training.