Senior Accommodation Officer

Role Overview

Are you an experienced housing professional ready to take the next step in your career? Do you thrive in a fast‑paced environment where your decisions genuinely change lives? Ipswich Borough Council is looking for a confident, motivated Senior Accommodation Officer to lead our dedicated team and help shape the future of housing services in our community.

As a Senior Accommodation Officer, you’ll play a pivotal role in managing and developing a team responsible for assessing housing needs, maintaining the Housing Register, and allocating temporary, emergency, and permanent accommodation. You’ll ensure that customers receive a fair, thorough assessment and that all allocations meet legislative requirements and reflect best practice. This is a role for someone who enjoys variety, problem‑solving, and leading people.

One moment you’ll be reviewing complex housing decisions, the next driving improvements to our Choice Based Lettings (CBL) scheme or overseeing the allocation of temporary accommodation. Along with the other Senior Accommodation Officer, you will be leading, supervising, and motivating a team of Accommodation Officers, ensuring high performance and excellent service delivery.

• Overseeing comprehensive assessments of customers’ housing applications and support needs to ensure they receive the correct priority on the housing register.
• Ensuring the effective operation of the Choice Based Lettings scheme and optimal use of temporary accommodation.
• Making sure allocations meet statutory requirements under Housing Act Part VII and related legislation.
• Completing reviews of housing decisions, ensuring fairness, consistency, and adherence to policy and the Equality Act 2010.
• Acting as a complaints champion within Housing Services, promoting learning and service improvement.
• Contributing to policy development, new initiatives, and performance monitoring across accommodation services.
• Producing and presenting clear, insightful reports for managers, councillors, and committees.
• Monitoring CBL usage across all nine protected characteristic groups to support equality and inclusion.
• Supporting the wider team by covering for the other Senior Accommodation Officer when required.

DBS clearance is required for this role. Hours of work are 37 per week, Monday to Friday with a requirement to be a duty manager on a rota basis. This is a hybrid working role (a minimum of 1 day per week working in the office). There is a requirement to visit outer Temporary Accommodation units as required and occasionally the request to work from these units.

As well as a good salary, we offer a career grade average pension scheme, generous holiday and sick pay entitlements, subsidised parking for work and leisure, public transport discounts, free swimming and gym membership, cycle purchase scheme, plenty of personal and professional development opportunities, flexible working, hybrid working opportunities, Employee Assistance Programme and the opportunity to work with great colleagues.

For more information about this role please contact Bridie Green (she/her) on or via email  If you require any assistance or reasonable adjustments during the application or recruitment process, please let us know so that the appropriate arrangements can be put in place.

To find out more about this role please download the job description and person specification:

Job Description and Person Specification. Interviews will be held over 16/17 March 2026 in person at Grafton House, Russell Road, Ipswich IP1 2DE
. Early applications are encouraged as we reserve the right to interview candidates who meet the essential criteria prior to the closing date and / or to close the opportunity to applicants once we receive sufficient applications. Please note CVs are not accepted.