Senior Environmental Health Officer

Job Details:

Salary range: £46,854 - £57,495 per annum. Salary negotiable depending upon experience  
Work location: Westminster City Hall, 64 Victoria Street, Westminster, SW1E 6QP
Hours per week: 36
Contract type: 2x Permanent       
Closing date: 31 August 2026
Interview date: 9 September 2026 

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 a Senior Environmental Health Officer in Westminster’s Private Sector Housing team, you’ll make your own powerful contribution to Westminster’s success by playing a vital role in improving housing conditions and protecting residents in one of the most complex and high-profile housing markets in the country.

Our work is focused on ensuring that privately rented homes are safe, well-managed and fit for people to live in. Working within the Public Protection and Licensing directorate, you’ll help deliver and enforce mandatory, additional and selective licensing schemes, alongside a wide range of housing and public health legislation, including supporting the council’s duties under the new Renters’ Rights Act.

Carrying out routine or unannounced visits and inspections to ensure compliance with legislation, and using engagement, education or enforcement to improve conditions, you’ll deliver a fair and informed response to complaints and concerns, and resolve them quickly and efficiently. Promoting and ensuring the integration of environmental health principals across the council and its partners, and providing guidance and support to improve public health, if you have to take any enforcement action you’ll be required to initiate legal proceedings, and prepare and give evidence in court.

An important part of your role will involve undertaking project work to deliver improvements to the service we provide, and you’ll also lead on the delivery of high profile or complex cases. And as a senior, experienced professional, you’ll also guide and mentor new officers and Environmental Health Officer and Regulatory Compliance Officer apprentices, and support the Principal Officer in the development and delivery of staff training and quality monitoring systems for our operational teams. Always ready to deliver a positive and proactive service as you help businesses and individuals understand and meet their regulatory requirements, you’ll also develop your expertise in environmental health through training and development, and share this knowledge and expertise to improve public health.

Please refer to the Job Description and Environmental Health Jobs Westminster for more information.

About You:

With a degree, diploma or similar in Environmental Health, significant post-qualification experience of working within Private Sector Housing, and the ability to respond to complex complaints from the public, stakeholders and elected members, you’ll possess the skills to deliver successfully in a high profile, customer facing role. Capable of building trusted relationships, deescalating conflict in emotionally challenging situations, providing education and advice, and using regulatory powers to effect change, you should also have well developed experience of working with a wide range of agencies and professionals.

It’s important that you have practical experience of case management – this should include the gathering of information and evidence to support legal action, an understanding of the rules of evidence and court proceedings, and the ability to understand and explain legislation, procedures and requirements to other people. With the skills necessary to listen carefully to different points of view and influence behaviour through the sharing of knowledge and the outlining of consequences, we’ll also look for the ability to assess the right intervention based on the risk to the public of non-compliance, and the confidence to make quick decisions.

Ready to build close working relationships with a number of different teams from inside and outside the council, your excellent written communication skills will see you producing clear and accurate documents, correspondence and evidence. Capable of managing your workload to agreed targets, standards and timeframes, and able to work with minimal supervision while out and about in the community, you should also be proficient in the use of the Microsoft Office Suite of software, and be willing to use handheld technology to record information and respond to customers.

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.

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 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 Our Westminster Way. To find out more about how we do this visit https://www.westminster.gov.uk/health-and-social-care/

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.

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.