Principal Housing Surveyor

Number of Vacancies

1

Time Type

Full time

Worker Type

Regular

Proposed Interview Date

Monday, November 2, 2026

Hours of Work

37

Hiring Manager

Kenneth Bird

Contact Number

01482 616183

Job Description Summary

This is a Full Time Permanent Position

Interviews will take place week commencing 2nd November 2026.

If you would like to discuss the details of this position further, please contact Ken Bird on 01482 616 183 or Clare Leader on 01482 612 370.

Lead the improvement of homes. Shape services. Make a visible difference.

Hull City Council is proud to invest in the quality, safety and sustainability of our homes and neighbourhoods. We’re now looking for a Principal Housing Surveyor to join our Empty Homes Deliver Team and play a vital leadership role in delivering high‑quality maintenance works across the city.

This is an exciting opportunity for an experienced housing or building professional to combine technical expertise, people leadership and strategic influence — improving outcomes for tenants while shaping how housing investment services are delivered.

About the role

As Principal Housing Surveyor, you’ll lead and manage a skilled team of surveyors and technical staff, delivering empty homes maintenance and refurbishment programmes that directly improve the condition of our housing stock and residents’ quality of life.

Working closely with Programme Managers and Senior colleagues, you’ll support the development and delivery of empty home repairs works, contribute to wider housing strategy, and drive continuous improvement across service delivery, performance and compliance.

You’ll also play an important role in ensuring the Council meets its statutory landlord responsibilities, maintaining excellent standards of safety, quality and value for money.

What you’ll be responsible for

• Leading and managing a team of professional surveyors and support staff
• Delivering repairs to approximately 1500 empty homes a year across council housing
• Supporting Programme Managers in developing and delivering investment programmes
• Managing contractor performance, quality standards and KPIs
• Ensuring compliance with housing legislation, safety standards and regulatory requirements
• Managing budgets and monitoring expenditure across revenue and capital programmes
• Providing expert technical advice on housing maintenance and improvement works
• Driving service improvement, innovation and value for money
• Engaging effectively with tenants, residents, contractors, colleagues and elected members.

About you

You’ll be an experienced housing or building professional with strong technical knowledge and proven leadership skills, comfortable managing people, performance and complex workloads in a public‑facing environment.
Core tasks include: -

• Line management of Project Surveyors – Performance/Quality Assurance /H&S /HR /Learning and Development
• Technical inspections for compliance work delivery to dwellings and communal areas work programmes (Asbestos) including[CL1.1] Damp & Mould and evaluating properties / communal areas to the Decent Homes Standard
• Carrying out risk-based evaluation in line with the Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS)
• Ensure fulfilment of Statutory Obligations regarding relevant legislation, for example the Social Housing Regulation Act 2023, Awaab’s Law Regulations 2025
• Prepare and present reports for members and contract documentation
• You will have significant experience of surveying residential properties and will be expected to transport yourself throughout the city to undertake site inspections
• The post holder must be flexible to ensure the operational needs of the Council are met. This includes the undertaking of duties of a similar nature and responsibility as and when required, throughout various workplaces in the Council.

You’ll bring:

• Extensive experience in housing maintenance, refurbishment or construction
• Strong people‑management skills, with the ability to motivate and develop teams
• Sound knowledge of housing legislation, building standards and contract management
• Confidence managing budgets, performance targets and contractor relationships
• Excellent communication and stakeholder‑management skills
• A proactive, improvement‑focused mindset with the confidence to lead change.

Ideally you will hold a degree or equivalent experience, ideally supported by an HNC/HND in Building Construction or a related discipline, and demonstrate a clear commitment to continuing professional development.

ROLE AND PURPOSE

To manage and lead a multi functional team of professional staff in delivering complex, innovative, repairs and refurbishment works across the city in relation to maintaining and improving the quality of the Authorities housing stock.

To support the Programme Manager to develop, implement and manage new initiatives which contribute to the delivery of the Neighbourhoods and Housing Strategy and Asset Management Plan.

To contribute towards the formulation and delivery of the Neighbourhoods and Housing Strategy and area based maintenance and improvement projects.

To lead and provide professional technical and managerial expertise for the purpose of delivering Corporate and Neighbourhoods and Housing Strategy objectives and associated policies.

To manage a team of Surveyors carrying out a range of duties required by Housing Investment Services and promote continuous improvement to service delivery.

PRINCIPAL ACCOUNTABILITIES

1. Strategy – Identify, evaluate and recommend initiatives for implementation within Neighbourhoods and Housing Strategy in order to maximise the opportunities of best value planning.

2. Customer Focus – Appraise and determine solutions to operational and technical problems through discussions/negotiations with tenants, residents, contractors and partners ensuring projects are delivered on time and a high quality of service is maintained.

3. Performance Management – Assess contractor capability and implement quality management systems to monitor contractor performance against Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and compliance with contract documentation and schedules.  To implement a performance management system for the service ensuring effective operational service delivery and continuous improvements in service quality and overall performance.

4. Leadership - To lead and provide a professional, responsive and high quality maintenance and improvement service for customers. To lead on the development and implementation of service delivery improvements to ensure continuous improvement and value for money is achieved.

To represent the Authority in a professional manner at all times.

5. Statutory Obligations – Ensure the Hull City Council fulfils its Statutory Obligations in relation to the Social Housing Regulation Act 2023, Consumer Standards Codes of Practice, Landlord and Tenant Act 1985, the Environmental Protection Act 1990, the Homes (Fitness for Human Habitation) Act 2018, Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005,  Fire Safety Act 2021, the Housing Health and Safety Rating System (England) Regulations 2005, Social Housing Regulation Act 2023, and maintain an expert knowledge of housing legislation, government advice and guidance, and national best practice so as to verify compliance with Council, statutory and best value requirements.

6. Manage, lead, guide and advise a team of professional technical staff to enable high quality work to be consistently produced.  Regularly monitor, audit and review work undertaken to verify compliance with policies, procedures and service delivery plans.  Produce, deliver and implement training programmes for Surveyors and contribute to the development of computer systems in order to maintain a high quality surveying service through knowledgeable professional staff.

7. Prepare and present reports to Area Committees, other members and public meetings.

8. Research and im