About the Borough
This special place in South West London between the capital and the country has been a Royal borough longer than anywhere else - it is where the first kings of England were crowned.
Today it is a vibrant and diverse borough, with a long history and strong cultural and community heritage. Kingston's riverside location, fantastic retail offer, historic market place and church, parks and gardens all make Kingston town centre the vibrant space it is, and each of our district town centres (Surbiton, New Malden, Tolworth and Chessington) have something unique to offer.
Situated in Zone 6, Kingston is among the best-connected town centres in London – with direct train links from Kingston and Surbiton stations to Clapham Junction and London Waterloo, as well as Wimbledon for an interchange with the London Underground and Tramlink.
Kingston’s people are innovative and entrepreneurial, and have a strong sense of community pride. The borough has been home to great industry and creativity for many years, reflected in assets such as the Rose Theatre, the International Youth Arts Festival and Kingston University, which boasts more new graduate business start-ups than any other.
We have seen tremendous generosity and compassion within our communities, particularly in response to COVID-19, which is a demonstration of Kingston’s key strength. The council offers a strong level of support to vulnerable groups and those who need additional support, which has also increased significantly as a result of the pandemic. Like most places, the average age of our population is rising as more people are living longer, so we are working closely with residents to help them maintain their independence and further improve the cost effectiveness of our service to meet the ongoing rise in demand.
Kingston is home to people from diverse and interesting cultures and backgrounds, which helps to create the rich sense of community shared across the borough. In particular, Kingston has a large Sri Lankan Tamil community and is home to more people from Korea than any other part of the UK.
About the Role and our Ideal Candidate
The Council is focused on delivering the best possible outcomes for its communities. To do this the Council needs employees who thrive in an agile and networked organisation and who can support continuous improvement within a constructive organisational culture. The role will therefore undertake to ensure the effective and efficient management of all Temporary Accommodation.
This is a varied job role as we have a wide property portfolio of temporary accommodation leased from landlords, hostels and nightly paid accommodation within Kingston and outside of our borough. You will be liaising with landlords and building relationships to ensure that repairing obligations and health & housing safety rating standards are met. You'll also be managing relationships with homeless households provided temporary accommodation including action to assist in income recovery, investigate anti-social behaviour and where needed recover possession.
The role will also require you to participate in an emergency out of hours rota to attend our in-borough hostel accommodation for homeless families. Enhancements will be paid for participating on the rota in accordance with policy.
You’ll be working in our offices in central Kingston as well as visiting our hostels and temporary accommodation. There may be the opportunity to work from home on some days.
Candidates are normally appointed to the first point of the grade and will progress through the grade range with an annual increase (to the maximum point). Exceptionally, appointments may be made above the first point of the grade, for example if you have significant experience in Temporary Accommodation Property Management.
If you apply as an internal applicant for a secondment please obtain your line managers permission before applying.
About You
We are looking for a positive, adaptable and resilient individual with strong interpersonal and decision-making skills, great customer service skills and knowledge of relevant legislation, particularly around property standards and tenancy issues and an understanding of the issues affecting homeless households.
As you'll be travelling around Kingston and the surrounding areas visiting our temporary housing and undertaking property inspections this role will require you to have access to transport. Payment for transport costs is made according to Policy.
You will need:
Knowledge of private sector housing law
Knowledge of repairing and health and safety obligations relating to standards in the private rented sector
An understanding of the needs of homeless households in temporary accommodation
Experience of working in a busy frontline housing service or similar and/or significant technical experience
Experience of partnership working and influencing and negotiating to achieve successful outcomes
Ability to communicate verbally and in writing to a range of audiences including customers, advocates and external stakeholders
About Us
This is an exciting time to be joining the Community Housing Service at RBK. We have restructured all services with a renewed focus on managing our housing challenges particularly around prevention and temporary accommodation and we are seeking highly motivated and enthusiastic individuals who want to get the very best of outcomes for residents of the Borough. You will be joining a busy and hardworking team during a time of transformational change where every day offers an opportunity to make a positive difference.
