Private Rent Sector Solutions Officer

Private Rented Solutions Officer
£40,182 - £42,060 per annum
Hybrid Role

*** Excellent terms and conditions including flexi time and working from home up to 3 days a week after initial 4 week induction ***

Last year Newham Homelessness Prevention Advice Service (HPAS) received more than 6500 homeless applications from households across the borough. The housing market in and around Newham is highly competitive and challenging, with a significant demand for affordable family housing.

The private rented sector plays a vital role in addressing this issue by providing essential housing options for those in need. Your role will be instrumental in ensuring that private rented accommodation is accessible and sustainable for our clients.

Our Private Rented Solutions Team is dedicated to sourcing, securing, and sustaining private sector tenancies for individuals facing homelessness. As part of Newham HPAS you will support the Service in procurement, education and lettings.

You will be responsible for maintaining a robust supply of affordable private lettings and long-term leased temporary accommodation. This will involve cultivating strong relationships with landlords, agents, and developers to promote the uptake of the Council’s Leasing and Lettings Schemes. You will then seek to match these properties to households to Prevent/Relieve homelessness or to discharge s193 homelessness duty.

The Private Sector Solutions Team is key to our Temporary Accommodation Reduction strategy, playing a vital role in reducing reliance on temporary housing solutions and helping to secure long-term, sustainable housing for those in need.

About the Role

This dynamic role focuses on procuring private sector properties, providing landlords and agents with the opportunity to let or lease their properties. You will deliver a high-quality, customer-centric experience that rivals a private letting agency, ensuring both landlords and tenants receive exceptional service.

We are seeking a highly organised, motivated individuals with strong negotiation skills and a deep understanding of the private rented sector. As an ideal candidate, you will have experience in negotiating with landlords & agents and securing high quality accommodation at competitive prices. You will be confident at assessing affordability for prospective tenants and confident in meeting with residents to educate them on how to access the private sector and find affordable accommodation.

All candidates will initially be offered a 12 month fixed term contract with permenant contracts available.

What Newham Can Offer

You do not need to have prior PVII homeless experience although it is preferred. If you do not have experience you need to demonstrate an ability to seek out relevant legislation with the ability to explain it to the panel. Full training on the legislation will be given by our internal training team, ensuring you are able to access a career pathway within homelessness.

We offer flexible working, with the possibility of working from home up to 3 days a week.

Essential Qualifications, Skills and Experience

We are looking for hard-working experienced housing professionals with specific private sector procurement experience, possessing strong communication and negotiation skills. We invite people who share our passion, commitment, and enthusiasm.

• Are you a strong communicator with excellent negotiation skills
• Able to achieve personal targets that make an impact on team performance and efficiency
• Experience of delivering proven positive outcomes
• Can you offer Landlords advice in line with legislation
• Able to be communicate effectively with a range of people, particularly landlords
• Knowledge of the Homelessness Reduction Act 2017, including Suitability of Accommodation.
• Able to deliver excellent customer service with an ability to mediate and resolve challenges
• Able to sensitively manage expectations

Closing date 13/10/2025

Please view JD

To Apply (Please Read!)

You must submit a supporting statement through our recruitment portal. The supporting statement must demonstrate how you meet the relevant requirements listed in the person specification section of the job description. This should be no more than 2 sides of A4.

If you do not currently understand the homelessness legislation you must demonstrate that you have sought to understand the basics doing research with the large amount of resources available. Applications which demonstrate no attempt to understand the legislation or make no reference to the legislative framework are unlikely to be successful. Applications which do not contain a personal statement, do not reference the legislation or are longer than 2 sides are likely to be dismissed.

Additional Information

We are committed to creating an inclusive, anti-racist environment for all. When you apply for a job at Newham, your application is considered on its merits regardless of your age, disability, ethnicity, faith, gender identity or sexual orientation. If you share our vision and values, and you bring the experience and skills we need, that’s all that matters to us.

The London Borough of Newham has important responsibilities for safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, young people and vulnerable adults. If you are appointed to a job that involves working with these groups, you may be subject to a Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check.

Please attach your supporting statement, explaining in no more than x2 A4 sides why and how you meet the criteria for this role.

We practice anonymised recruitment. Please ensure that you remove all personal information from any documents that you upload.

The personal information we have collected from you will be shared with Cifas who will use it to prevent fraud, other unlawful or dishonest conduct, malpractice, and other seriously improper conduct. If any of these are detected you could be refused certain services or employment. Your personal information will also be used to verify your identity. Further details of how your information will be used by us and Cifas, and your data protection rights, can be found by https://www.cifas.org.uk/fpn.