Why Southwark?

Southwark’s Private Rented Sector is home to over 37,000 households. We are proud to be at the forefront of tackling housing inequality and homelessness. Through our Homelessness and Rough Sleeping Strategy 2025–2030, we are delivering bold action to prevent homelessness, improve housing conditions, and protect residents across the private rented sector.

Our work includes strengthening enforcement against rogue landlords, improving partnership working, and ensuring residents have access to safe, secure and high standard housing.

If you want to make a real difference in one of London’s most dynamic boroughs, this is your opportunity.

What You'll Be Doing

As a Principal Enforcement Officer, you will play a critical leadership role in delivering Southwark’s regulatory and housing enforcement services.

You will:

• Provide expert leadership and specialist knowledge in private sector housing enforcement and collaboration with internal and external enforcement partners.
• Take robust enforcement action against non-compliance, including investigations, legal proceedings and court representation.
• Contribute to performance monitoring, ensuring high standards of service delivery against the requirements of the Renter’s Rights Act 2025.

What We're Looking For

We are seeking a motivated and experienced enforcement professional who thrives in a fast-paced, complex regulatory environment.

You will bring:

• Specialist expertise: Strong knowledge of housing enforcement legislation, including offences under the Protection from Eviction Act 1977 and emerging regulatory frameworks.
• Operational experience: Proven experience managing enforcement cases, investigations and legal processes.
• Commitment to residents: A passion for protecting communities, promoting equality and delivering high quality services.

Our Offer to You

At Southwark, we recognise that our people are our greatest asset. In return, we offer:

• The opportunity to shape and deliver impactful enforcement work aligned to a borough-wide strategy
• A collaborative, forward-thinking working environment
• Access to continuous professional development and training
• The chance to work on complex, high-profile cases that make a real difference

We are committed to equality, diversity and inclusion and welcome applications from all backgrounds. We particularly encourage applications from underrepresented groups to reflect the communities we serve.

Be part of the change

Join us and play a key role in tackling poor housing conditions, preventing homelessness, and protecting Southwark’s residents.

Additional Information

Recruitment Timetable

Application Closing Date: 19/07/2026

Interview: 05/08/2026

*We reserve the right to close this vacancy early if we receive sufficient applications for the role, in which case we will move the key dates for the process. Therefore, if you are interested, please submit your application as early as possible.

Guaranteed Interview Scheme

As part of our commitment to inclusion, we offer guaranteed interviews for specific groups of people. To qualify, you'll need to meet the minimum requirements for the role, and identify with one of the below criteria:

• Members of the Armed Forces and veterans
• Are currently in care or have previously been in care.
• If you consider yourself to be disabled or if you have a long-term health condition.

Attachments

• Click here to view the Job Description and Person Specification