Housing Allocation Officer - Temporary Accommodation

Job Title: Allocation Officer For Temporary Accommodation

Location: Ashford, Kent

Salary: 26,685 to 29,079 per annum

Job Type: Permanent, Full time - 37 Hours Per Week

Closing Date: 18th August 2025

Do you have a strong sense of purpose and a desire to make a difference in people's lives?

Are you organised, empathetic, and proactive with a passion for housing services? If so, we'd love to hear from you!

About the Role:

As an Allocation Officer, you will play a vital part in helping vulnerable households find safe and suitable temporary accommodation. You'll be the first point of contact for placements, ensuring our properties are efficiently matched to clients.

Key Responsibilities:

You will be responsible for matching clients to appropriate temporary accommodation, and coordinating sign-ups and managing rent account set-up along with:

• Liaising with providers to ensure compliance and property standards
• Supporting clients with housing benefit applications
• Monitoring voids, transfers, rent arrears and tenancy issues
• Acting as a point of contact for landlords and clients in temporary accommodation
• Collaborating with internal teams to support clients moving into permanent housing

About you:

To be competent in this role it is essential that you are customer-focused with excellent communication and negotiation skills, along with:

• Being organised and detail-oriented and able to manage a fast-paced workload
• Being Team-oriented, but confident working independently
• Being experienced working with the public or within a housing environment
• Having knowledge about housing standards, tenancy issues, and housing benefits is a plus!

It is essential that you have GCSEs (Grade C or above) or equivalent, strong IT skills (Word, Excel, Teams, Outlook) and have proven experience working in a customer service or housing-related role.

Benefits:

We offer a range of Benefits including:

• Hybrid Working - We are an organisation that puts people first and understands how important employee wellbeing is. We want to help you to balance your working life and home life and offer flexible ways of working to help structure your life in a positive and productive way; both at home and in the office. This maximises personal development and collaborative working.
• Competitive remuneration package including:
  • We offer an excellent salary linked pension scheme
  • Generous annual leave with flexi time,
  • Free life insurance,
  • Supportive relocation package
  • Opportunities for training and development.

Additional Information:

With devolution news and talks evolving across the country for local authorities, we understand that there may be some uncertainty for those currently serving within the sector. Although Kent and Medway have not been included in the Devolution Priority Programme, discussions continue in this area. Kent, Medway and all District and Borough Councils in the South East will continue to work closely with each other to deliver vital services to our communities. This is an exciting, but stable time to join our organisation.

Ashford Borough Council recognises the need to ensure the welfare of children, young people and vulnerable adults when they come into contact with the services we provide

We welcome applications form the Armed Forces Community.

To find out further information about the role and to view the full job description, please visit the council's website.

When applying - Please ensure that you have received confirmation of a submitted application once completed. For any assistance in completing the application form, please contact us.

Please click the APPLY button and you will be redirected to the council's website to complete your application.

Candidates With the Relevant Experience or Job Titles of; Customer Service Advisor, Housing Officer, Housing Allocation Officer, Customer Service Executive, Customer Support officer, Housing Register Administrator, Lettings Officer, Public Sector Lettings may also be considered for this role.