Principal Standards Officer

Job profile for Principal Housing Standards Officer

04/10/2026 Principal Housing Standards Officer

Salary £52,194 - £55,323 per annum.

Package Permanent, Full-time.

36 hours per week.

Job category/type Housing

About us at Hounslow

We’d love you to join us at the London Borough of Hounslow! Our people are deeply committed to providing excellent services to our residents, doing all we can to make lives as good as they can be.

We are an outstanding council, serving an outstanding borough. With brilliant, visionary leadership, a dynamic Cabinet and a can-do culture, we’ve built strong partnerships which have transformed how we serve one of London’s most diverse boroughs. Hounslow is the world in one place and full of potential. We are stepping up for our residents like never before.

About our Commitment to Diversity and Inclusion

We live by five core values:
Lead with Heart, Do New, Pass on the Power, Harness the Mix and Be a Rock. All our work has equality, diversity and inclusion at its very heart, best articulated in “Harness the Mix”. It’s about breaking down barriers between our parts and people and unlocking the problem-solving power of our amazing mix of minds. We serve a diverse community, we have a diverse workforce and we are committed to being an inclusive employer.

We work hard to create representation across our workforce and leadership community, we have thriving employee network groups and our learning and development programmes help us lead, model and breathe ways of working that eliminate inequality, inequity, injustice and bias.

As part of this and under our commitments as a Disability Confident Employer, we make reasonable adjustments to accommodate our candidates. There’s space for you to tell us what you need within our application form.

Our Benefits

If you join us, you’ll have access to a range of employee benefits. Read more about these here.

About The Role

This is an exciting opportunity to join the Private Sector Housing Standards Team as a Principal Housing Standards Officer. You will lead the Council's HMO Enforcement Team, managing a small team of three officers responsible for identifying and tackling unlicensed Houses in Multiple Occupation (HMOs), protecting tenants and improving housing standards across the borough.

Hounslow has a large and growing private rented sector, with approximately one in four households living in privately rented accommodation. This is a high-profile role at an exciting time for the service as we build on our successful borough-wide Additional Licensing Scheme and develop proposals for a Selective Licensing Scheme. You will play a key role in delivering regulatory services that make a tangible difference to residents, landlords and local communities.

The role reports directly to the Head of Housing Standards and provides opportunities to lead enforcement activity, develop policy and contribute to the Council's wider housing improvement agenda, including the implementation of new powers arising from the Renters' Rights reforms.

About The Team You’ll Be Working In

The Private Sector Housing Standards Team sits within the Planning and Buildings Service, part of the Council's Placemaking and Growth directorate. Working alongside housing, planning and regeneration colleagues, we deliver a joined-up One Hounslow approach for residents.

The team is responsible for improving standards across Hounslow's private rented sector through:

• HMO licensing and regulation
• Enforcement against unlicensed HMOs
• Investigating tenant complaints about housing conditions and disrepair
• Bringing empty properties back into use
• Delivering new responsibilities under the Renters' Rights Act
• Developing and implementing property…