Housing Assistant

An opportunity has become available to join Housing Allocations, as a Housing Assistant.

Allocations is a high volume work area responsible for assessing, investigating and verifying all applications for social housing in Southampton, providing housing options advice as part of this assessment. The team is also responsible for advertising and allocating all Council and partner Housing Association vacancies, including new build and regeneration schemes.

In this role, you will support a team of Allocations Officers by dealing with post, organising the collection and filing of applications and documents as well as dealing with some initial email and telephone enquiries from members of the public who may want to apply for housing in the city. You will also provide general office administration for the team including letter writing, printing, photocopying, statistical business returns and maintaining essential office supplies. You will also work closely with other areas of the Housing Service with whom we work closely, such as the Homelessness service and local housing offices as well as external services such as housing associations.

The post holder will form an essential part of the team by ensuring key office based functions are carried out smoothly and accurately. Previous experience of working in a social housing environment is beneficial but not essential. We are looking for somebody with an eye for detail and good literacy and computer skills together with an ability to manage a large workload and to work effectively as part of a team.

Southampton City Council is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, young people and adults. It is committed to delivering services to ensure they are happy, safe and have opportunities to reach their goals as responsible members of our community. We believe it is always unacceptable for a child, young person or adult to experience abuse of any kind, and recognise our responsibility to safeguard and promote their welfare. We are committed to following safe practices to ensure this and expect all employees, workers and volunteers to share this commitment. This commitment is reflected in all our recruitment and selection practices.

As a Corporate Parent we are actively aiming to support all our children in care (looked after children) and care leavers. Any applicants who are children in care or care leavers, who meet the essential criteria for the post applied for, will be guaranteed an interview.

• Please note the salary quoted is based on full time hours (37 hours per week)


• The working hours for this role are 25.75 hours per week


• This post is fixed term for 9 months


• Please note that appointments are usually made at the bottom of the salary scale.


• This post requires a DBS check.


• For any posts that require a DBS check, if you have lived outside the UK within the last 5 years, you will be required to provide a Certificate of Good Conduct or a police certificate from the country/countries you have resided in. Kindly note that this is at the expense of the candidate, as well as any costs involved for translating into English.