Location
Westminster City Hall, 64 Victoria Street, Westminster

Hours
Full Time - standard council working hours

Salary
£57,495 per annum

About the Role
Environmental Health at Westminster City Council is a world of extraordinary stories, where passionate and expert professionals go above and beyond for their communities every day. As a Senior Environmental Health Officer in Westminster’s Private Sector Housing team, you will play a vital role in improving housing conditions and protecting residents in one of the most complex and high-profile housing markets in the country. Your work will focus on ensuring privately rented homes are safe, well-managed, and fit for people to live in.

Working within the Public Protection and Licensing directorate, you will help deliver and enforce mandatory, additional, and selective licensing schemes alongside a wide range of housing and public health legislation, including supporting the council’s duties under the new Renters’ Rights Act. You will carry out routine or unannounced visits and inspections to ensure compliance with legislation, using engagement, education, or enforcement to improve conditions. You will deliver a fair and informed response to complaints and concerns, resolving them quickly and efficiently.

Promoting and ensuring the integration of environmental health principles across the council and its partners, you will provide guidance and support to improve public health. Where enforcement action is necessary, you will initiate legal proceedings and prepare and give evidence in court.

An important part of your role will involve undertaking project work to deliver service improvements and leading on high profile or complex cases. As a senior professional, you will guide and mentor new officers and apprentices, and support the Principal Officer in staff training and quality monitoring systems.

Always ready to deliver a positive and proactive service, you will help businesses and individuals understand and meet their regulatory requirements. You will also develop your expertise through training and development, sharing knowledge to improve public health across Westminster.

Experience
- Degree, diploma or equivalent qualification in Environmental Health.
- Significant post-qualification experience working within Private Sector Housing.
- Proven ability to respond to complex complaints from the public, stakeholders, and elected members.
- Practical experience in case management including gathering information and evidence to support legal action.
- Understanding of rules of evidence and court proceedings.
- Experience working with a wide range of agencies and professionals.
- Ability to build trusted relationships, de-escalate conflict, provide education and advice, and use regulatory powers to effect change.

About you
- Skilled in listening carefully to different points of view and influencing behaviour through knowledge sharing.
- Confident in making quick decisions and assessing the right intervention based on risk to public safety.
- Excellent written communication skills with the ability to produce clear and accurate documents, correspondence, and evidence.
- Capable of managing workload to agreed targets, standards, and timeframes.
- Able to work independently with minimal supervision while in the community.
- Proficient in Microsoft Office Suite and willing to use handheld technology to record information and respond to customers.
- Committed to building close working relationships with internal and external teams.

Qualifications
- Degree, diploma or similar qualification in Environmental Health is essential.
- Commitment to ongoing professional development and training.

Westminster City Council is committed to supporting Care Leavers into the workplace. Care Leavers who meet the essential criteria will be automatically invited to interview under this scheme.