A day in the life of an Housing Projects Officer

My name is Emma Charlton. I have worked at East Devon District Council for nearly 8 years, originally as a Tenant Participation Assistant and now as Housing Projects Officer within the Housing & Social Inclusion service.

The role of the Housing Projects Officer is to support the work of other teams within the housing service and to undertake a variety of projects which will help provide housing options for people in housing need, promote social inclusion and assist community development. For my current role I needed a degree (or equivalent level education).

A typical day as a Housing Projects Officer would consist of liaising with colleagues and tenants regarding current project work, drafting advice leaflets, answering tenants’ queries and preparing briefing notes or papers for senior staff. One of my current projects is to look at future redevelopment options for a local community centre. My daily work varies depending on the nature of the projects that I am working on. Some projects will require working out in the community, seeking the views of tenants, residents, and councillors, and researching good practice from other local authorities. If the projects involve researching, drafting or updating housing documents I can spend most of my time in the office, doing research and liaising with colleagues.

The role requires the ability to deal sensitively with a wide range of customers, colleagues, tenants and councillors. You need to be able to communicate clearly, use plain English and tactfully edit the work of both colleagues and tenants. A broad knowledge of housing issues is essential, as well as knowing what other sections are working on and their priorities. I have undertaken several training courses to develop my skills throughout my time at East Devon District Council. For example I have attended ‘Research in Housing’ (run by Shelter), ‘Tenancy Agreements’ (run by the Chartered Institute of Housing) and I am currently undertaking the Service Excellence Award (through the Council).

What I most enjoy about my job is liaising with colleagues and council tenants, and seeing projects which I have spent time working on come to a successful completion. What I least enjoy about my job is that it can, at times, involve too much time spent at my desk and computer.

My proudest achievement is seeing the new Tenant Handbook, which I coordinated and drafted, in print and being distributed to new tenants.

The reason I chose to work in Local Government is that I wanted a job working with people in the social sector.

Good Luck in your chosen career!

Page last updated on 7 November 2008