Principal Private Sector Housing Officer – Licencing

About the job

Salary: £47,181 – £50,269 a year plus £3,203 car benefit allowance
Hours per week: 37
Contract type: Permanent

We are seeking an experienced and proactive Principal Private Sector Housing Officer – Licencing to provide professional leadership within our Private Sector Housing Enforcement Service.

This is a key senior role for a skilled housing professional who will lead a multifunctional team of officers responsible for licencing relevant residential premises, providing expert advice, undertaking inspections, and enforcing all relevant housing legislation as delegated to the service. You will apply a high level of technical knowledge and professional judgement to ensure licencing functions are delivered effectively, consistently, and in line with statutory requirements.

You will undertake and oversee complex licencing cases and investigations, providing clear supervision, guidance, and support to junior colleagues. A strong focus of the role will be maintaining high standards of practice, supporting staff development, and ensuring that licencing decisions and enforcement actions are robust and defensible.

Working closely with the Private Sector Housing Manager, you will help to identify and implement service improvement initiatives and play a lead role in planning and delivering a range of Private Sector Housing Enforcement and service-specific projects. You will contribute to shaping service delivery, improving outcomes for residents, and ensuring the service responds effectively to legislative and operational challenges.

This role is ideally suited to an experienced licencing or enforcement professional with strong leadership skills, excellent technical expertise, and a commitment to raising standards within the private rented sector.

Please note this role does not attract sponsorship.

About you

You will have substantial experience of managing a broad range of complex licensing cases and investigations within a Private Sector Housing Enforcement environment, supported by in-depth knowledge across the full range of private sector housing licencing and enforcement matters. You will be able to demonstrate supervisory and management experience, including responsibility for staff performance monitoring, professional development, and the provision of clear guidance and support to a team.

You will possess strong communication skills, with the ability to work effectively with a wide range of individuals, agencies, and professionals, demonstrating tact, discretion, and confidence when dealing with sensitive or challenging situations. You will be able to exercise sound professional judgement when undertaking complex investigations, analysing problems and infringements, establishing facts, and taking appropriate action in accordance with legislative requirements. You will be skilled in planning activities, prioritising workloads, and managing resources to meet deadlines and targets, and will have substantial and current knowledge of relevant legislation, regulations, and codes of practice, alongside specialist practical and operational expertise, including knowledge of Criminal Court procedures. You will be educated to Diploma or Degree level (or equivalent recognised qualification) and able to evidence a strong commitment to continuing professional and personal development.

About us

Our ambitious Luton 2040 Vision – that no-one in Luton will have to live in poverty – is at the heart of everything we do. We recognise that our people are remarkable, talented, committed and passionate about serving our residents.

The people of Luton depend heavily on this council – and that means our workforce! Are you ready to realise the remarkable and help us deliver our vision?

We welcome applications from all sections of the community and are committed to developing a workforce that reflects the diversity of our borough

Application Process

Because of the nature of this job, it will be necessary for the appropriate level of criminal record disclosure to be undertaken. This post is exempt from the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 and therefore applicants are required to declare all unspent cautions and convictions; and also any adult cautions (simple or conditional), and spent convictions that are not protected as defined by the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975 (as amended in 2020). A person’s criminal record will not in itself prevent a person from being appointed to this post. Applicants will not be refused posts because of offences which are not relevant to, and do not place them at or make them a risk in, the role for which they are applying. However in the event of the employment being taken up, any failure to disclose such offence, as detailed above, will result in dismissal or disciplinary action by the Authority.

On occasions, we may close a vacancy early due to a very high number of applications being received.

Benefits

We offer a range of excellent staff benefits which include:

- From 25 to 32 days’ annual leave: linked to length of service and grade
- Buying annual leave scheme: buy up to 20 days additional annual leave
- Career Pathways: step up in your career or move into a specialist area
- Pension scheme: with generous employer contributions of up to 20.2 per cent (at July 2023) and 3x salary death in service grant
- Generous relocation package: up to £8,000 (subject to eligibility)
- Employee Assistance Programme: a free, 24/7 confidential counselling and wellbeing support service available to all employees, their partner or spouse and dependent children over 16 still living at home
- Work/life balance: flexible working options including working from home where possible. We welcome requests for flexible working arrangements including part-time hours and alternative working patterns
- Training and support: unlimited access to development courses, mentoring and support and clear career pathways
- Staff offers: includes discounts on your MOT, gym and fitness, restaurants and salons
- Arriva Travel Club: great value savings on local bus travel

How to apply

We understand that job applications take time and effort, but a high-quality application shows that you are professional with a good attention to detail. The recruiting manager may receive a number of applications for each job advertised so you want yours to stand out!

Our ‘How to apply' page has more tips to help with your application: How to apply

Available documents

Attached documents are available under links. Clicking a document link will initialize its download.

• download: Principal Private Sector Housing Officer Licensing - JD.pdf
• download: Luton_Values_Flyer.pdf