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Hours per week:37 hours
Temporary/Fixed term:24 months
Interview date:Tuesday 29 July 2025
Housing - Empowering Housing Solutions for All in Wiltshire
Our Housing Solutions team ensures customers are able to get housing advice and help if theyre homeless or threatened with homelessness. The aim is to help people in housing need find suitable and affordable housing.
Main duties of the job
In this crucial role, you will provide advice, work proactively to prevent or relieve homelessness, and assess housing needs for the council's Housing Register. You'll collaborate with various departments and agencies to fulfil our statutory responsibilities to homeless people and help others in housing need in our challenging housing market.
We are looking for someone who not only has knowledge of landlord & tenant, allocations and homelessness law, but also someone who is empathetic, adaptable, customer focused and able to work in a trauma-informed way.
Be the change you want today, advise and support those in your community in unsuitable housing and empower them to improve their housing prospects through applying for this role and securing your future.
About us
Wiltshire Council is a friendly, welcoming place to work, with a 'One Council' ethos. Thats why we focus on getting the things that matter to our people right.
Job responsibilities
This role is to work with the public to address their housing need by sympathetically interviewing andassessing their households housing requirements and tailoring advice and information that bestaddresses their issues. This may include advice around low-cost home ownership and other forms ofhome ownership, working with landlords to overcome issues/barriers to renting in the private sector,assessing a household as eligible for the councils social housing register or recognising ahomelessness role as part of the duties under the Homelessness Reduction Act 2017. The role,above all, will be to prevent homelessness and provide a fully rounded approach to housing solutionsfor customers.Specific duties and responsibilities include:Housing Advice
Responding to the inquiries of customers, internal and external, who require free,independent advice and information on all housing-related issues, ensuring compliance withthe Councils policies and procedures
Communicating well with customers, strongly focusing on their housing concerns, theimprovement of their housing conditions, the development of greater independence and theprevention of homelessness by offering timely, bespoke, good quality and consistent housingadvice.
Housing Allocations
Sensitively interviewing prospective housing applicants in unsuitable, insecure or unaffordablehousing and advising them about the solutions available make their homes suitable, secureand affordable
As part of holistic assessments of customers housing needs, assessing their eligibility to jointhe councils allocations scheme, supporting them to make the relevant application andprovide the necessary supporting information and documentation for their housing need to beassessed.
Homelessness
Sensitively interviewing households who may be homeless or threatened with homelessnessand assessing them in accordance with the statutory duties laid out in the HomelessnessReduction Act 2017. These assessments must be based on the whole households needs andcan be extremely complex, involving a multi-disciplinary approach. It will include detailedinvestigations leading up to making statutory legal decisions on behalf of Wiltshire Council.Advanced knowledge of homelessness law and experience of making legal decisions isrequired to be able to conduct these interviews
Assessing what duties, if any, are owed to households under Part VII of the Housing Act 1996(as amended by the Homelessness Reduction Act 2017) and producing your own statutorydecision letters that explain clearly and in good English how those decisions have beenreached.
Person Specification
Experience
* High level of relevant and practical experience acquired on.
* An advanced understanding of relevant procedures and working practices.
* Advanced knowledge of specialist function relevant to service area.
* Excellent ICT skills including use of Microsoft applications and specialist systems
* Good communication and interpersonal skills.
* Good customer service skills with experience of resolving customer enquires in the relation to
* the service area.
* Experience of working with the public in a customer facing / contract role.
* Relevant practical experience working as part of team to meet service standards, targets and
* deadlines
* Good planning and organisational skills, with proven ability to use initiative, prioritise workloads
* and achieve deadlines
* Good literacy and numeracy skills
Qualifications
* HNC in housing or business or working towards a professional L4 Chartered Institute of Housing
* qualification
* Full or part membership of either the Chartered Institute of Housing, the Royal Institute of
* Chartered Surveyors, or Chartered Institute of Environmental Health is desirable
* At least three years experience of working in a housing or similar environment
* In depth understanding of housing/environmental/health policy and legislation and strategic role
* of local authorities
* Knowledge of housing law, in particular Housing Act 1996 Part VI and VII and the Homelessness
* Reduction Act 2017.
* Detailed knowledge of social housing, private housing sector, landlord and tenant legislation.
* Fluent in both written and spoken English.
* CIH qualification or equivalent relevant housing qualification
* Detailed knowledge of housing law, in particular Part VII of the Housing Act 1996 (as
* amended by the Homelessness Reduction Act 2017) and Landlord & Tenant housing law
* Knowledge of Welfare Benefits, wider Wiltshire Services and their interactions
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