Allocations Officer

About us at Hounslow

We’d love you to join us at the London Borough of Hounslow! Our people are deeply committed to providing excellent services to our residents, doing all we can to make lives as good as they can be.

We are an outstanding council, serving an outstanding borough. With brilliant, visionary leadership, a dynamic Cabinet and a can-do culture, we’ve built strong partnerships which have transformed how we serve one of London’s most diverse boroughs. Hounslow is the world in one place and full of potential. We are stepping up for our residents like never before.

About our Commitment to Diversity and Inclusion

We live by five core values: Lead with Heart, Do New, Pass on the Power, Harness the Mix and Be a Rock. All our work has equality, diversity and inclusion at its very heart, best articulated in “Harness the Mix”. It's about breaking down barriers between our parts and people and unlocking the problem-solving power of our amazing mix of minds. We serve a diverse community, we have a diverse workforce and we are committed to being an inclusive employer.

We work hard to create representation across our workforce and leadership community, we have thriving employee network groups and our learning and development programmes help us lead, model and breathe ways of working that eliminate inequality, inequity, injustice and bias.

As part of this and under our commitments as a Disability Confident Employer, we make reasonable adjustments to accommodate our candidates. There’s space for you to tell us what you need within our application form.

Our Benefits

If you join us, you’ll have access to a range of employee benefits. Read more about these here.

About The Role

This is an exciting opportunity to join our Homelessness, Independence and Preventative Services which adopts a preventative approach across the housing, health and social care agendas. You must be professional, energetic and enthusiastic as we are interested in what you can bring to help us improve and develop our services to support some of our most vulnerable residents. We are looking for someone to work in housing allocations to allocate council properties and to provide nominations to Registered Providers.

You are highly organised to allocate permanent council accommodation and nominate to Registered Providers to ensure properties are let as soon as practicably possible. You will carry out viewings and sign-up new tenancies, taking account of individual customer needs. You provide information, advice and support with moving arrangements including advice and assistance regarding benefits and access to financial support.

You will engage with our service users via a combination of customer facing contact via telephone and email, ensuring customer records are accurate and up to date at all times. You are highly motivated to to promote our service and actively participate in developing service improvement across the Homelessness, Independence and Preventatives Services. You will work collaboratively across the service and with other professionals to achieve individual outcomes for residents while supporting the shared goals of the council.

About The Team You’ll Be Working In

This is an exciting and busy role in the Allocations team. The service is developing and progressing our agenda to reduce the use of temporary accommodation and achieve more upstream prevention outcomes.

1.You are a frontline professional delivering a first class, modern and flexible service to some of the most vulnerable people in the Borough. You are outcome focussed and seek to achieve successful outcomes by implementing bespoke solutions to complex problems.

2.You will carry out allocations, viewings, lettings and nominations to minimise void times, ensuring adherence to the Council’s Allocations Policy and associated procedures.

3.Ensure shortlisted applicants are verified prior to offer of nomination, in particular, relation to eligibility, priority band and date, household composition, property criteria and affordability, identifying potential fraudulent applications and assist with reviews of offers to determine whether they are suitable, preparing evidence that may be used in legal proceedings.

4.Provide accurate information and advice on waiting times, rehousing prospects and alternative housing options, such as downsizing, mutual exchange and Seaside and Country Homes.

5.You will be working in a service that makes a real difference to the lives of people who are homeless or at risk of losing their housing.

6.You will work collaboratively with your colleagues and partner agencies to contribute to the effective delivery of the integrated preventative service across housing, health and social care, avoiding escalation to higher level and crisis service provision where applicable.

7.Assist with training of staff regarding the Housing Allocations process and rehousing process and support project work and new initiatives, including customer satisfaction surveys, assisting to identify and implement service improvements.

8.Work effectively in a changeable environment to achieve targets and service objectives with competing priorities, while assisting to continuously improving our service offer to residents to meet changing needs and integrate digital solutions.

9.Keep up to date with key legislation, policies and procedures, and maintain an awareness of issues that can cause legal, reputational and financial risks to the council, escalating issues so that action to mitigate or prevent risks arising can be taken, to ensure value for money service delivery.

About You

You have extensive knowledge and experience of the Housing Act 1996 (as amended) and the Homelessness Reduction Act 2017, working with vulnerable people, and experience of working in multi-disciplinary housing teams and work involving complex needs and diverse client groups and an expert knowledge of homelessness and associated legislation.

1.You have experience of working in a customer orientated environment involving complex and diverse client groups and can understand and apply relevant legislation in your day-to-day work, including housing allocations, homelessness and welfare benefits, while effectively managing customer expectations.

2.You are a great communicator who engages effectively with a broad range of people, including applicants, colleagues, and elected members, to motivate, influence, negotiate and persuade and achieve multi-disciplinary outcomes to meet wide ranging needs.

3.You act with integrity, take personal responsibility and handle stress effectively while maintaining high levels of motivation and enthusiasm to achieve successful corporate preventative outcomes, using proactive and creative solutions.

4.You work independently, proactively and flexibly, while being highly organised to prioritise conflicting demands.

5.You are a high performing individual who works collaboratively with others, adapting to meet a range of changing needs while achieving targets and service objectives and make the team the very best it can be

6.You can travel independently around the Borough to visit properties and meet other professionals in community settings.

• Are you passionate about customer services?
  • Are you an experienced homelessness professional?
  • Are you looking to working in a forward thinking and progressive housing department?

If the points above resonate with you, we would like to hear from you.

Essential for the Role

Basic DBS check is required for the role.

Read more about the role you will be doing in the Role Profile.

The key information you need about the role should be in the Role Profile, but if you have any further questions about the role, please contact:

Email: Janice.Roach@hounslow.gov.uk

Closing date - 25.09.2025

Interviews for this job will be held in the beginning of October 2025.