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Housing Officer

Sanctuary Group
locationColchester, UK
PublishedPublished: Published today
Housing officer
Full Time
Sanctuary manages rented and shared ownership homes and supports community initiatives for thousands of customers across England. Our staff help make a real difference to the quality of people's lives.

Housing Officer - Independent Living

Essex/ Suffolk/ Hertfordshire

£35,947 per year (pro rata)

37.5 hours per week - Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm

Temporary position for up to 6 months

We have an opportunity for a hardworking and committed Housing Officer, who has sound knowledge of the local area and Independent Living to join our team in the East and South East Region, working alongside 4 other Housing Officers. Managing a team of Scheme Managers based in Essex/ Suffolk/ Hertfordshire, to deliver a high quality housing management service that meets the identified needs of customers, the organisation and the wider community in line with Sanctuary Housing Services' business plan. This role sits within the Independent Living Team, and is mainly lone working day to day, including managing a team of approximately 10 Scheme Managers.

The role of Housing Officer will include:
  • Managing a Team of Scheme Managers who oversee the day to day running of Schemes across a geographical area.
  • Meeting all legislative and regulatory requirements for housing management activities, ensuring the provision of quality and safe homes for Sanctuary Housing Services' current and future customers and to minimise potential risks
  • Providing effective tenancy and resident management in line with the prescribed internal policies and good practices to build community cohesion
  • Delivering a high quality housing management service that meets the needs and expectations of current and future residents and the wider community in line with Sanctuary Housing Services' business plan
  • Developing, building and maintaining relationships with current and future customers and other key internal and external stakeholders to ensure the effective management of housing management services, identifying any shortfalls in service delivery and ensure these are acted upon
  • Updating and maintaining all manual and computerised records in an accurate and timely manner to ensure compliance with the Group's Record Management and Data Protection policies
  • Ensuring the effective management of complaints in line with policy, focussing on first contact resolution and the identification of future learning opportunities to achieve customer service excellence
  • Supporting the service charge setting and scheme accounts production processes. Including ensuring that customer queries are investigated and responded to in a timely manner
  • Managing the recruitment, performance and development of quality staff to ensure that skilled staff are available to meet business needs and individual accountabilities
Skills and experiences:
  • Literacy and numeracy equivalent to passes in GCSE English and Maths and an NVQ3 in relevant area
  • Recent experience of undertaking a similar role and delivering high quality tenancy services
  • Proven experience of analysing and diagnosing problems and implementing solutions
  • Excellent communication, Organisation and customer care skills
  • Good negotiation and presentation skills
  • Proven experience of good practice resident involvement activities
  • Excellent understanding of written and spoken English
  • Working knowledge of relevant regulations and good practice
  • Experience of managing staff
  • Travel is a requirement of the role, therefore a full valid driving licence is essential
Why work for us?

We are a not-for-profit housing association, and own and manage around 125,000 homes. We foster a diverse and inclusive culture, and nurture and reward talent. Our customers are at the heart of all we do, and colleagues help make a real difference to people's lives.

Our Benefits

As part of our commitment to making Sanctuary a great place to work, where your wellbeing is of genuine importance, we have developed an attractive employment package. The package recognises your contribution, supports your physical, mental and financial health and gives you the flexibility to tailor your employee benefits by offering:
  • 25 days annual leave (rising to a maximum of 30 days) plus public holidays (pro rata)
  • A pension scheme with employer contributions from Sanctuary
  • Life Assurance
  • Employee Advice Service including counselling
  • Cycle to Work scheme
  • Voluntary health plans
  • Employee discounts
  • Wellbeing support and tools
  • Employee recognition scheme
  • Staff Networks, with a shared interest in inclusion, and who provide invaluable support to colleagues
  • Role salary is £35,947 per year (pro rata)
View the job profile (if the link is unavailable please visit the Sanctuary careers website)

Closing Date: 29 April 2026

If you're unsure about any details, have questions about the role or want to discuss a need for adjustments, our fantastic talent team will be happy to help you - housing.recruitment@sanctuary.co.uk

We reserve the right depending on application numbers to close or extend the closing dates for positions; we would therefore recommend an early application.

View more detail about what it's like to work for our organisation, and what we offer on our Sanctuary careers pages at - www.sanctuary.co.uk/join-our-team

Inclusion is one of our core values. Our goal is to be a diverse, inclusive organisation where our people thrive and meet our customers' needs with fairness and empathy. We know having a range of ideas and opinions makes a difference. We encourage and welcome applications from people from diverse backgrounds to support this mission. We will make adjustments throughout your application process, in line with Sanctuary's commitment to our Disability Confident employer status.

Building Equality and Diversity

Sanctuary Group encourages and welcomes applications from people from diverse backgrounds to support our commitment to offering an inclusive environment for our employees and customers.
We work closely with the Home Office in order to prevent illegal working.
A basic Disclosure and Barring Service check will be necessary in the event of a successful application which we will pay for.
Sanctuary Housing Services Limited is a subsidiary of Sanctuary Housing Association, an exempt charity.