Environmental Health Officer WCC621439

Job Details:

Salary range: £41,580 - £45,399 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 and Fixed term (24 months) contracts available 
Closing date: 13 July 2025

About Us:

THE EXTRAORDINARY STORY OF THE POWER OF EMPOWERMENT

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.

Natasha started her career in the NHS. She came to Westminster to do more for vulnerable people. When a family in her community reached out to her after their heating was cut off, Natasha took their situation seriously. Living in terrible conditions, and reaching desperation, they had nowhere else to turn. Natasha stepped in, holding the landlord to account and getting them to improve conditions for the family. These are the moments that make her the proudest. Now, she uses her expertise and experience to empower others. 

The Role:

As an Environmental Health Officer, you too can make a powerful contribution. This role sits within the private housing sector team, specifically for a new selective licencing scheme. You will be working alongside a team of specialists in environment, housing standards and licencing support, all motivated by the shared goal of creating safer and fairer housing. Innovation and professional growth are both valued here, and there are plentiful opportunities for career advancement.

Our aim is for every resident, business or visitor of Westminster to thrive in a clean, safe, quiet environment. By harnessing your environmental health knowledge and technical skills, you will develop, implement, and enforce environmental health policies and legislation. Your work will have a direct impact on people’s lives, improving living conditions for tenants, including many that are vulnerable or living in poor housing. Plus, you will offer your environmental health expertise to guide others in their decision making. You will be proactive about ensuring that your knowledge is up to date, through taking on training and new projects.

A key part of your role will be ensuring that the Private Housing Sector meets high standards, property licencing is enforced, and rogue landlords are tackled. To this, you’ll need to engage with landlords and tenants to ensure compliance, requiring a mix of diplomacy and firm enforcement. You will be proactive in identifying and educating on areas of risk, helping the public to meet regulatory requirements. When complaints arise, you will deliver a sensitive, fair and informed response in a timely manner. You will carry out routine or unannounced visits and inspections to ensure compliance with legislation. When necessary, you’ll take enforcement action, initiate court proceedings, prepare and give evidence in court. This will require gathering the right intelligence and having well-kept records.

To ensure housing compliance and the effectiveness of enforcement actions, you will work with internal teams, legal professionals, landlords, tenants, and external agencies like the police and fire service. You will often have to balance differing perspectives, expectations and priorities.

We would like you to be an advocate for environmental health across the council and its partners. Plus, you’ll nurture your understanding of the subject by undertaking training and new projects.

This is your opportunity to use your environmental health expertise to have a direct, positive impact on improving living conditions across Westminster. 

Please refer to the Job Description for more information.

About You:

We are an inclusive team, passionate about fairer housing, looking for someone with experience of working in Private Sector Housing to join us. You are comfortable responding to complaints from the public, stakeholders and public elected members, both in writing and in person. You have worked with a range of agencies and professionals to improve public health. We would like for you to have experience in case management, from gathering information and evidence to the rules of court proceedings.

Customer service and conflict resolution are key here. So, we would like you to bring experience of a customer-facing role, with the ability to listen well, build trusted relationships quickly, and crucially, deescalate conflict. You know how to effect change through education and advice. This will be achieved by understanding and effectively explaining legislation, procedures and requirements to improve compliance, clearly informing on consequences and the penalties of non-compliance. Even when situations are emotionally challenging, you can meet them with calm.  You can make quick-time decisions on the right intervention, prioritising compliance and reducing risk. When out in the community, you are comfortable working with minimal supervision.

Also, you can plan and manage your workload within agreed targets. You have good written communication skills and can document activity and consequences clearly and accurately. You have good IT skills, proficiency in Microsoft Office Suite. While working in the city, you are willing to use handheld technology to record information and undertake tasks and respond to customers.

You have a degree or a diploma in Environmental Health. Or, you have other qualifications and/or experience that qualify you for this role.

For more information and to apply please see our dedicated recruitment site Apply - Westminster City Council

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.

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.