Job Details:

Salary range: £34,359 -£38,637 per annum. Salary negotiable depending upon experience 
Work location: Westminster City Hall, 64 Victoria Street, Westminster, SW1E 6QP
Hours per week: 36
Contract type: Permanent
Closing date: 24 June 2026

About Us:

Housing Needs in Westminster City Council is a world of extraordinary stories. For Abbie, a Homelessness Officer, the work is often about stopping a crisis from happening at all.  

This might mean negotiating with landlords, working through financial difficulties with residents, or finding practical solutions that allow people to remain in their homes.

In one situation, Abbie worked with a resident who was at risk of losing their home after the rent became unaffordable and possession action had started. By working closely with the landlord, she took the time to understand what had driven the landlord to increase the rent and the residents’ financial situation. Through careful negotiation, she was able to secure an affordable agreement that worked for both parties. The possession action was withdrawn and the resident was able to stay in their home.

At Westminster, we understand that homelessness is multifaceted and caused by various factors, and addressing homelessness often goes beyond providing emergency accommodation – it requires an in-depth understanding of the root causes. This is why, alongside her negotiation work with the landlord, Abbie worked with officers across the department and the wider Council to help maximise the resident’s income. For Abbie, cases like this are not only about securing housing in the interim, they are about ensuring that residents are also able to sustain their tenancies in the long-term.

This kind of work requires persistence, judgement and empathy. Across Westminster, this is what our Housing Needs officers do every day: working with residents to turn difficult situations into new beginnings.

The Role:

As a Community Prevention Officer specialising in Prevention, Support and Solutions, you can make your own powerful contribution to people across Westminster. Joining our fast-paced, high-impact Housing Solutions and Homelessness Service, you’ll help stop homelessness before it happens, working closely with clients and partners to deliver early intervention activity. 

Acting as a source of specialist advice and guidance to service-users, you’ll assist them with accessing the support services they need. Whether through signposting, referrals, community outreach or regular check-ins, everything you do will be with the aim of assessing risk and preventing homelessness. 

Your day-to-day will be varied and dynamic, and could include everything from responding to safeguarding concerns to gathering, verifying and analysing evidence to support fair decision making. You’ll split your time between the office and the community, ensuring you become a visible, empowering advocate to the people we serve. 

Please refer to the Job Description for more information.

About You:

An established professional with experience supporting people facing homelessness with housing needs, you’ll have knowledge of safeguarding responsibilities and the following legislation:

-    The Housing Act 1996 (Part VII) 
-    Homelessness Code of Guidance
-    The Domestic Abuse Act 2021
-    The Localism Act 2011
-    The Equalities Act 2010
-    The Homelessness Reduction Act 2017
-    The Council’s Housing Allocation Scheme

Confident utilising available schemes, resources and pathways to secure appropriate support, you’ll be capable of drafting high-impact formal correspondence and reports in a statutory or regulated setting. 

On a personal level, you’ll be a caring, empathetic individual capable of working with sensitivity to understand the needs and pressures faced by vulnerable households. Everything you do will put Westminster’s communities first, and you'll have the opportunity to do vital, often life-changing work that offers reward like no other. 

This is a fantastic opportunity to join a proactive, community-rooted service that values collaboration and growth, and to supercharge your career in the process.

What We Offer:

Westminster is an amazing place. We are home to more than 200,000 residents from all backgrounds, over 50,000 vibrant and vital businesses and three-quarters-of-a-million people work in Westminster. Westminster City Council’s strategy is to work towards a Fairer Westminster. A Fairer Westminster is one in which our communities are at the heart of our decision-making and help to determine the city’s future. By working directly with our communities and other partners, we can build a more inclusive city that celebrates our diverse communities, and where residents, workers and visitors from all backgrounds will feel welcome and safe.  

At Westminster City Council, we pride ourselves on being an inclusive workplace and employer of choice. We encourage and welcome applications from people from all backgrounds and aim to have a workforce that, at all levels, represents the communities we serve. We champion equality, diversity, inclusion and wellbeing and aim to create a workplace where everyone feels valued, has a sense of belonging and is empowered to be their best, that is the Westminster Way. To find out more about how we do this visit https://www.westminster.gov.uk/health-and-social-care/public-health-strategy-policies-and-reports/equality-duties 

As a forward-thinking Council we appreciate that people work in different ways, therefore our staff benefit from working a range of flexible working patterns as well as Agile working. 

The Council is a Disability Confident Employer. If you have declared a disability in your application, we guarantee an interview if you meet the essential criteria of the job. If you are invited for interview, you will be asked if you need any reasonable adjustments in order to attend, and we will make these wherever possible. 

Westminster City Council is committed to supporting Care Leavers into the workplace. Care Leavers seeking their first job and who wish to be considered under our scheme, will automatically be invited to interview should they meet the essential criteria for the role.

We reserve the right to extend or close this vacancy early without warning subject to the volume of suitable applicants.