Director of Housing Neighbourhoods and Customer Services

Contract: Permanent

Salary: Up to £135k per annum

Category: Senior management

Grade: Director

Location:
Town Hall
160 Whitechapel Road
London
E1 1BJ

Working hours: 35 hours p/w

Closing date: 30 January 2025

Tower Hamlets Housing Services is going through one of the most exciting transformations in its history.

We insourced our ALMO Tower Hamlets Homes in November 2023, and we are investing in both the service and our passionate housing teams with a focus on delivering new homes and providing excellent customer service.

We are building the next generation of council homes to tackle overcrowding and provide good quality homes. We now have 22,000 homes across the borough including The Boundary Estate in Shoreditch which is the first council housing estate in London.

As Director of Housing Neighbourhoods and Customer Service, you will be a leader with the experience, drive and passion to place our council tenants and leaseholders at the very centre of what we do.

You will be someone who relishes the challenge of managing some of the most diverse housing stock in the country including a high number of high-rise blocks. Most of all you will have a passion for Tower Hamlets and a belief that our tenants and leaseholders deserve the best from their homes and neighbourhoods.

You will oversee continued improvements to our Housing Management Service by listening to their concerns and feedback to inform the decisions we take. That way tenants and leaseholders have the opportunity to shape services with us. Excellent customer service is crucial to our success. You will drive a culture that prioritises correspondence and calls from our residents, and which handles complaints effectively.

You will be responsible for creating a great physical environment on our estates through our Housing and Estate Services teams which include tenancy, caretaking and grounds maintenance functions.

Another key element of the role is to meet the Regulator of Social Housing Standards expectations including the Transparency, Influence and Accountability Standard and the Safety and Quality Standard.

You will lead the delivery of an early intervention approach to support our tenants and leaseholders with their financial stability whilst also helping to minimise arrears and the financial performance of our Housing Revenue Account.

Our council is delivering one of the most ambitious agendas in local government. We want an innovator to continue to drive change alongside our permanently appointed Corporate Director for Housing and Regeneration, David Joyce.

Tower Hamlets is a city within a city – it offers the best of London in one borough. As one of the most visited and high-profile places in the country, the experience of our residents, businesses and visitors is everything. From the Lower Lea Valley which is London’s most significant opportunity area to Canary Wharf and the Isle of Dogs or areas like Spitalfields, Wapping and the City Fringe or places like Whitechapel, Stepney and Poplar - it is all happening in Tower Hamlets. We are brimming with ambition and our desire is to deliver great placemaking and new homes.

Use your leadership skills to inspire and motivate your team

You will need to have the ability to balance strategic leadership and direction with effective operational management. This includes fostering an open and trusting culture with the ability to lead change through others and inspire high levels of performance.

We are looking for an individual with the ability to apply discretion and initiative in dealing with complex issues. You will be authoritative and influential, with highly developed relationship management and networking skills, and the ability to foster joint working across services

You should be naturally engaging with an ability to inspire and command the respect, trust and confidence of colleagues, council members and other stakeholders. You will be experienced in managing frontline services and you will be committed to being visible, engaging and authentic in managing teams which are often based on estates.

Financial and commercial awareness, highly effective budgeting and financial management skills is essential. You will have detailed knowledge of the Regulator of Social Housing standards and a track record of delivering against these. You will have experience of using technology and software to improve services for residents.

You will be politically sensitive and have a strong belief in the value of local democracy and accountability. You will also have a strong commitment to our values, behaviours and equal opportunity policy, and be ready to demonstrate personal leadership on the importance of diversity.

Our council is a beacon for diversity and inclusion. We want a borough where everyone feels valued and included, and we want a council that collaborates to deliver excellence.

That’s why we look for people with our TOWER values of Together, Open, Willing, Excellent and being Respectful.