Housing Services Manager
General Housing | Squared Homes
Contract: Permanent
Salary: £48,000 – £50,000 per annum (depending
on experience)
Hours: 37 hours per week (Monday to Friday)
Location: Luton & South Bedfordshire (agile
working across customer properties)
Essential Car User Allowance paid in addition to mileage
reimbursement
About Squared
Squared is a not-for-profit housing association supporting
communities across Luton and South Bedfordshire since 1962. We are a welcoming,
inclusive organisation where people feel valued, supported and empowered to
make a real difference.
Our Homes Department are vital divisions of Squared
providing more than just housing to our customers who are most in need. We work
closely with a range of partners including the Department for Work and
Pensions, Luton Borough Council and Central Bedfordshire Council along with our
portfolio of private landlords.
The role overseas our Housing Services Team who look after around 440 homes for
independent living for people in need in our local community, spread across
Luton, Dunstable, Caddington and Barton le Clay.
Our Benefits
- 33
days annual leave (including bank holidays), increasing with service (up
to 38 days)
- Option
to buy or sell up to 5 days leave
- Free
Health Cashplan (after probation)
- Canada
Life WeCare Employee Assistance Programme
- Pension
scheme (Squared contributes 1.33% of employee contribution up to 8%)
- Life
Assurance
- Personal
Accident Cover
- Staff
benefits portal with shopping discounts
- Essential
Car User Allowance (in addition to mileage payments)
- Flexible,
supportive working approach
About the Role
You will play an important role in Squared, being
responsible for overseeing and developing the provision of high-quality housing
management and housing-related support services to all Squared customers in
general needs, sheltered and private leased accommodation.
Excelling in both written and verbal communication, you will be responsible for
leading the Homes Team, ensuring our customers and landlords needs are met and
exceeded whilst searching for innovative ways to enable as many people as
possible to benefit from our limited housing resource.
You will work closely with our Homes with Support, Property Services and
Finance teams to provide a complete housing and support solution to our
customers throughout their personal journey, working with customers to achieve
sustainable tenancies through effective management of arrears, property, ASB,
safeguarding and neighbourhood issues.
You will have oversight of the lease management of our
private lettings’ services, managing the day to day operational service
provision to help prospective and current landlords, ensuring a high quality
service is delivered through the smooth running of the department.
You will be an integral part of our operational management team; being hands-on
in the management of the services; analysing and improving processes and
working to improve quality, productivity and efficiency.
What You’ll Be Doing
- Management
responsibility and oversight of the Homes Team; promoting and delivering a
customer-centred service that is responsive to both customer and landlord
needs, and places customer influence at the heart of the service.
- Overseeing
the team, ensuring they receive regular one to ones and personal reviews,
to support and encourage team member development, establishing learning
and development needs, and contributing to the annual learning and
development plan.
- Working
in collaboration with the Leadership Team to develop and deliver the
Housing Strategy and business plan.
- Continuously
developing the portfolio of properties including identifying need,
sourcing properties to Squared standard with the wider teams and
negotiating with landlords where appropriate.
- Evaluating
operational practices with due regard to risk, statutory and regulatory
requirements and best practice to help improve delivery and development of
the annual business plan to help drive continuous improvement.
- Identifying
and assessing opportunities for operational innovation and continuous
service improvements, championing innovative solutions to workflow,
working practices and data management; seeking continuous improvement in
systems and workflow management; bringing cost and time efficiencies
across the broad spectrum of operations.
- Streamlining
and reviewing processes to increase output without increasing cost.
- Closely
monitoring and managing void levels, rent collection, rent arrears,
landlord payments and other key performance indicators; taking action to
ensure targets are met and relevant Squared policies and procedures are
followed.
- Ensure
ASB is proactively managed and escalated where appropriate to gain the
swiftest positive outcome for our customers and neighbourhoods.
- Safeguarding
issues must be prioritised, escalated and addressed in accordance with
Squared’s Safeguarding policy ensuring no one in need is placed at risk
without support and intervention.
- Ensuring
all complaints are effectively dealt with and monitored in line with
Squared policies and that the complainant is kept informed of progress.
- Build
and develop strong relationships with potential and existing private
landlords and external key stakeholders, customers and colleagues giving
advice and feedback as required.
- Ensuring
that effective systems and procedures are in place to support customers in
maintaining their tenancies.
- Ensure
that all data recorded by the Housing Team is accurate, time sensitive,
accessible and reportable within all data systems in use.
- Escalate
tenancy and ASB cases through the legal frameworks as necessary with
oversight of witness statements and evidence to support injunctions and
court applications; representing Squared in court and liaising with
Solicitors and other agencies when necessary.
- Ensuring
the work of the team aligns with the Squared focus on tenancy sustainment
and manages the landlord relationships.
- Liaising
with all relevant external agencies, local authorities and other partners,
including other Squared departments and stakeholders; to achieve high
levels of customer satisfaction with our services.
- Attend
networking and partnership meetings to gain support and ideas from
external organisations, promoting Squared services to the wider community.
- Keeping
up to date with legislation affecting the service; ensuring that the
services comply with relevant legislation and regulatory requirements,
policy and good practice in respect of day-to-day operation.
- Accountability
for budget management and review.
- Accountability
for identifying, setting, measuring and monitoring key performance
indicators for the Housing department; setting meaningful KPIs and targets
for the department; ensuring that staff are fully engaged in the
performance outcomes that are required and are supported and coached to
deliver them; producing regular performance monitoring reports and taking
action where necessary for performance improvement and to be responsible
for meeting any requirements highlighted through audits; reporting to the
leadership team on a monthly basis.
- Acting
at all times in accordance with the Squared values – being a champion of a
values led culture and an ambassador for the organisation.
- Understanding
and following Squared policies and procedures at all times, including
Health and Safety and Fairness.
- Maintain
strong and effective relationships with internal teams across Squared and
external partners.
- You
may be asked to achieve additional objectives as part of your development
or as the role evolves.
About You
We’re looking for someone who is:
Understand: is consistent, approachable and friendly.
Promotes and ensures others support equality of opportunity, diversity and
inclusion. Recognises and celebrates the success of others. Supports the
development of others to achieve success.
Grow: is open to new ideas, ways of working and improvements. Strives
for continuous improvement. Takes responsibility and being accountable for
projects and initiatives. Developing good practices and making improvements to
reflect changing needs. Explaining why things need to be changed and getting
others on board with this.
Recognise: Gains credibility by being calm, capable and confident and
treating customers and colleagues with genuine respect. Communicates in a
concise, clear and transparent way, prioritising tasks effectively. Genuinely
respects customers, colleagues and third-party contacts.
Deliver: Shows commitment and works collaboratively to ensure what we do
has measurable outcomes and makes business sense. Shows your enthusiasm or
passion for what Squared does and supports the direction we’re moving in.
Play: Recognising two heads are better than one;
using co-production to engage with customers, enhancing service delivery;
understanding the power of play, to contribute to personal resilience,
overcoming challenges and enhancing service delivery; recognising that
happiness and appropriate humour helps us to reach our potential and improve
performance.
Innovate: Seeing problems as challenges that can be
overcome; constructively question and politely challenge with genuine interest;
adopting a solutions-focused mindset, putting the customer at the heart of our
decision-making; learning from other organisations; take ideas, make them
better and make them work for Squared. Actively encouraging team to develop
‘adventurous thinking’ skills and welcome the opportunity to try something new
even if the outcome doesn’t work as expected; embracing change by leading by example.
Essential
- Significant
experience in housing management, social housing or a related sector.
- Experience
leading, managing and developing a team.
- Strong
knowledge of tenancy management, rent arrears, ASB, safeguarding and
housing legislation.
- Excellent
customer service skills with a commitment to delivering positive outcomes.
- Experience
building and maintaining relationships with landlords, partners and
stakeholders.
- Strong
communication, negotiation and influencing skills.
- Ability
to analyse performance data and use insights to drive improvements.
- Experience
managing budgets, KPIs and operational performance.
- Strong
organisational skills with the ability to manage competing priorities.
- A
proactive, solutions-focused approach with a commitment to continuous
improvement.
- Full
UK driving licence and access to a vehicle for business use.
Desirable
- Housing
qualification such as CIH Level 4 or above.
- Experience
working within temporary accommodation, supported housing or private
leased accommodation.
- Knowledge
of housing management systems such as SDM, MRI or Reapit.
- Understanding
of the local housing market and challenges facing the Luton and South
Bedfordshire area.
- Experience
of lease management and working with private landlords.
- Experience
representing an organisation in legal proceedings relating to tenancy or
ASB matters.
- Project
management or service improvement experience.
- Understanding
of property maintenance, energy efficiency and asset management.
- Membership
of a relevant professional body.
- Experience
working with local authorities, charities and other community partners.
What Will Make You Stand Out
- A
passion for making a positive difference in people’s lives.
- The
ability to balance commercial awareness with social purpose.
- A
collaborative leadership style that develops and inspires others.
- Confidence
in driving change and embracing innovation.
- A
genuine commitment to Squared’s values and customer-first approach.
Why Work With Us?
At Squared, you’ll be part of a values-driven organisation
where your work has genuine impact.
If you’re looking for a role where you can make a
difference, develop your skills and work within a supportive and
forward-thinking team, we’d love to hear from you..
