Head of Service Charges, Rent and Income
£65,000 per annum
Long Stratton, Norwich, Norfolk
Permanent, Full Time
Fulltime: 37hrs per week
Proposed Interview Date: TBC
We have an exciting opportunity for a Head of Service Charges, Rent & Income to provide strategic leadership and operational oversight for Saffron Housing Trust’s service charges, rent application and income collection activities. Ensuring that delivery is compliant, customer-focused, and aligned with best practice whilst maximising income across the 7000+ homes, homeowners, freeholders on estate and garages.
Key Responsibilities Include:
Responsible for the Rent and Charges notification process, estimate consultation process, Actual Account Process, Sinking Fund Process, Major Work Final Account Process and Collections processes.
Provide visible, values-based leadership contributing to cross departmental collaboration.
Support colleagues to enhance and apply their technical knowledge to deliver an effective service to tenants, residents, and stakeholders.
Oversee the setting, issuing, applying, reconciliation and collection of service charges, personal charges, estate-based charges, and utility charges ensuring compliance with legislation and transparency for residents.
Lead initiatives to enhance tenant and residents’ engagement, ensuring we listen to and act on customer feedback.
Maintain up to date knowledge of government, regulatory requirements, and best practice across the sector ensuring that all policies and processes are kept up to date to maintain regulatory compliance.
For a full list of responsibilities please see the attached Role Profile
Our Ideal Candidate Will Have:
Educations and Qualifications:
Degree level or equivalent relevant professional qualification or qualified by experience (E).
Evidence of continued professional development (E)
Have or are working towards a Chartered Institute of Housing (CIH) Level 3 or above, or similar (D).
Membership with the Chartered Institute of Housing (CIH) or The Property Institute (formerly IRPM) (D).
Experience:
Demonstrable and extensive experience working in a senior housing management role a Social Housing or Local Authority setting.
In depth experience in managing complex variable service charges, estate charges, sinking funds, and diverse rent regimes (Social, Affordable, Intermediate).
Deep understanding of leasehold management, Section 20 consultation processes and managing external third-party managing agents.
Experience of income collection and welfare benefits.
Experience in creating and developing policy and procedures.
Substantive experience of working with and presenting complex financial and compliance reports to governance groups including Tenant Service Committees and Boards.
Experience of identifying, interpreting, and implementing changes in response to new legislation or regulations.
Experience at forming and delivering strategic roadmap plans including training, quality assurance, and annual plans.
Experience in leading customer facing teams and a history of customer excellence & performance against KPI’s.
Extensive knowledge of law and housing legislation related to rents, service charge, leasehold management, managing agents and income collection to ensure compliance and effective service delivery.
Extensive stakeholder management of both internal and external stakeholders.
Skills, Knowledge and Abilities:
Extensive knowledge of government policy, legislation, regulations, in relation to service charges, rents and collections.
Extensive knowledge of leases, tenancies, legislation, and case law in relation to income collection, service charges and rents.
Knowledge of developing IT systems for managing service charges, rents and income collection.
Comprehensive knowledge of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985 & Housing Acts.
Knowledge of the Regulator of Social Housing’s Consumer Standards (2024) and new inspection framework.
Knowledge of sector risk themes and the impact of these on service charges, rent and income collection.
Coaching and leadership skills to enable a team to develop to achieve its full potential.
Exceptional ability to translate complex financial concepts into "plain English" for diverse stakeholders, colleagues, and residents.
Exceptional customer service skills with a commitment to resolving complex enquiries efficiently and effectively.
Excellent skills in financial modelling, budgeting, and forecasting
Proficiency in using data and insights to drive personalisation transparency, and service improvements.
Personal Attributes:
People centred committed to a coaching culture that empowers staff, colleagues, and residents.
Strategic and outcome-focused with a strong grasp of governance and accountability, who balances financial rigor, with social purpose and pragmatism.
Adopts a collaborative approach and excels in building and maintaining strong stakeholder relationships internally and externally.
Please note this role is subject to a Basic Disclosure and Barring Service check
The Company
We are a housing association based in Norfolk providing quality homes and services to people across the county and in Suffolk.
We manage over 6,000 homes including affordable homes for those in housing need who cannot afford to rent or buy in the open market.
We offer specialist homes for older and vulnerable adults and are committed to providing new homes to help solve the housing crisis.
At Saffron
We have a huge commitment to our employees. We want the team at Saffron to be happy, empowered, motivated and feel proud to be part of the Saffron community. We know by having great people we can do a great job for our tenants. We trust our colleagues to do the right thing and we are looking for people whose values are aligned with ours (PACE – Professional, Accountable, Collaborative and Evolving).
You will have the freedom to learn and grow. We are passionate about investing in our people, providing them with the skills they need now, and for their future aspirations. We do this by offering a blend of learning opportunities, including our innovative e-learning platform where learning is self-directed allowing people to learn what they want, when they want to.
We work with and support our people to work in an agile way to ensure that have the right work/life balance. They have the choice to work in the office, work from home, coffee shop, park or a combination of all. We have recently refurbished our offices to encourage collaborative, agile working.
As an inclusive employer, we are committed to the equal treatment of all current and prospective employees and have a zero tolerance policy relating to discrimination on the basis of age, disability, sex, sexual orientation, pregnancy and maternity, race or ethnicity, religion or belief, gender identity, or marriage and civil partnership.
We aspire to have a diverse and inclusive workplace and strongly encourage suitably qualified applicants from a wide range of backgrounds to apply and join the Saffron Community