Head of Housing Works | Full time | Southampton | £83,643 – £91,823

Southampton City Council is hiring a Head of Housing Works.

This is a permanent full-time role based at the Civic Centre in Southampton. You will work 37 hours a week.

This is a senior leadership role in Housing. You will lead Housing Works, the Council’s in-house delivery service for repairs, maintenance, compliance, planned works, and estates services across more than 16,000 homes.

You will help turn day-to-day delivery into a reliable, high-quality service for tenants. You will also help modernise the service and improve performance, planning, and value for money.

This role is a strong fit for an experienced leader with a background in Housing Works, property, construction, or a similar operational service.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead service delivery: Oversee repairs, maintenance, compliance, planned works, and estates services
• Manage people and spend: Lead a workforce of more than 400 staff and oversee around £33m annual spend
• Set standards: Make sure work is safe, reliable, well planned, and delivered to the right standard
• Improve performance: Drive better productivity, planning, scheduling, and use of resources
• Support Housing priorities: Turn Housing goals, standards, and investment decisions into effective delivery
• Modernise the service: Improve systems, mobile working, scheduling, and data use
• Deliver value for money: Make the best use of in-house teams and external suppliers
• Lead change: Help Housing Works adapt to new ways of working and the new commissioning model
• Build leadership: Develop strong managers, clear accountability, and a resilient service

About You

• Experienced leader: Strong senior leadership experience in a complex operational service
• Relevant background: Experience in housing, property, construction, or a similar environment
• Qualified or equivalent: Degree-level education, relevant professional or leadership qualification, or strong equivalent experience
• Commercially aware: Good financial and commercial understanding, including supply chain and productivity management
• Improvement focused: Proven track record of driving change and improving service performance
• Strong with people: Able to lead through others and build leadership at different levels
• Good communicator: Able to work across services and build trusted relationships with colleagues and partners
• Outcome focused: Committed to strong customer outcomes, value for money, and reliable delivery

What Southampton City Council Offers

• Salary: £83,643 to £91,823, with annual progression through the salary band
• Pension: Local government pension with 15.2% employer contribution
• Death in service: 3 times salary, with optional salary sacrifice AVC
• Annual leave: 25 to 31 days, depending on role and service
• Flexible working: Role-dependent flexible working options
• Family support: Maternity, paternity, adoption, shared parental, unpaid parental leave, and time off for dependants
• Development: Training, coaching, and mentoring
• Wellbeing support: Employee Assistance Programme, Mental Health First Aiders, Menopause Pledge, and staff networks
• Extra benefits: Retail discounts, sports and fitness discounts, travel benefits, and 2 paid volunteering days

How to Apply

Apply if you have the experience, leadership skills, and operational background to lead this important service.

The closing date is 17 May 2026.

For an informal discussion, the advert says you can contact Jamie Brenchley by email. Recruitment queries can be sent to the Council’s recruitment team.

Application Tips

Focus on your experience leading large operational services, improving performance, and managing budgets, people, and supply chains. Use clear examples that show service improvement, modernisation, strong leadership, and how you have delivered better outcomes for customers and residents.