Empty Homes Network

Empty Homes Enforcement Officer | Dorset Council

Salary: £36,648 to £42,403

Type: Permanent, Full Time | Location: Dorchester

Closing date: 12th May, 2024

About The Role

Are you passionate about bringing empty homes back into use?

Do you have the skills and abilities to manage a complex caseload, ensuring an effective, efficient, and high-quality service?

If you answered ‘YES’, this job could be for you!

We have an exciting opportunity for an Environmental Health Officer to join our Housing Standards Team in Dorchester.

You will be a confident, motivated, and independent professional, with an understanding of the issues that empty homes present. Knowledge of the legislation and enforcement practices associated with empty homes would be advantageous but is not essential. Support from colleagues and opportunities for training and development will help you to achieve your full potential.

You will investigate complaints and referrals about empty homes, encouraging owners to bring homes back into use by providing advice and assistance. We believe that the most problematic empty homes often need formal action. Therefore, you will be comfortable taking an enforcement approach, including notices, works in default and other interventions including Compulsory Purchase Orders.

You will get the chance to use your broader Environmental Health skills. From time to time, you will need to provide help and resilience to our wider team, which may include general private sector housing enforcement, regulating houses in multiple occupation, camping and park home sites.

You will be part of our award winning and nationally recognised empty homes service, bringing long term, problematic empty properties back into use. Engaging with property owners, residents, and stakeholders across Dorset, you will use the full range of your professional skills to make a big and lasting impact.

You will be working within the Housing Standards team which is responsible for carrying out a wide range of duties and roles related to the private sector housing stock in Dorset. This includes the enforcement of the Housing Act 2004, enforcing other associated legislation and bringing long term empty properties back into use.

Further Information

The post is full time, job share may be considered and is subject to agreement by the Service Manager Housing Standards.

This post requires significant travel. You must have a vehicle (or transport we deem suitable) available for use as needed.

This post requires you to have access to sensitive information. It will be subject to a Basic Criminal Records Check. See our policy on the employment of ex-offenders.

About Us

We’re passionate about making Dorset a great place to live, work and visit. Working for us should be no exception.

At Dorset Council we:

provide more than 450 services to over 300,000 residents
have ambitious aspirations
are excited about our future
care about Dorset and all the people who live here
know that all roles make a difference and that our employees are key to our success
You will:
have access to a range of employee benefits
be part of an organisation that supports each other to grow and succeed
have access to range of training opportunities which will help with your personal development and career progression

We are challenging ourselves to become a more diverse and inclusive organisation. We recognise that recruitment and inclusion of individuals with diverse skills, perspectives and backgrounds will bring real strength to the council and our communities. We have a commitment to equality and welcome applications from everyone.

We are proud to be a Disability Confident Employer. We offer an interview to everyone who declares a disability and meets the essential criteria for the role.

We are keen to make our interviews accessible. Let us know on your job application if you have a disability and need any reasonable adjustments.

We also look for applicants who share our commitment to our behaviours. We will ask you to evidence when you have demonstrated them as part of the selection process.

If appointed, the personal information we collect 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 at https://www.cifas.org.uk/fpn.

This role is UK based and we will need to establish your Right to Work as part of the appointment process.

We use generic job descriptions and person specifications. This means the job title on any attachments may differ from the job title in the advert. We may provide specific information in a context statement if relevant.

Find out more about how to apply.

To view the job context statement or job description, visit the Council’s website here.