Team Stoke

Stoke-on-Trent City Council manages a substantial and diverse housing portfolio of over 18,000 properties, with a clear commitment to maintaining and enhancing its housing stock to meet tenants’ needs.  
As a large social housing landlord, we are committed to providing safe, high-quality homes that enhance the lives of our tenants and take pride in delivering an excellent repairs and maintenance service that puts tenants and communities first.

Stoke-on-Trent city council has managed its repairs and maintenance service via an outsourcing approach for over 15 years.  In July 2024, the city council decided to insource these arrangements and this role will lead the council’s housing repairs, maintenance and compliance services.

Stoke-on-Trent is home to an enviable range of development opportunities - including an ambitious regeneration programme, an exciting partnership with Homes England to deliver 3,000 new homes, and nationally-significant flagship schemes such as the transformation of the Goods Yard and our town centre regeneration projects.
We are investing in an improved bus network and active travel routes, transforming our use of energy to decarbonise the city, and ensuring development is sustainable through a solutions-focused planning system.
We are delivering new homes, bringing brownfield sites back to life, and investing strongly in our own existing housing stock. Through a mission of continuous improvement, we are delivering best value across a range of crucial services.   

This is a great opportunity to deliver for the people, businesses and communities of Stoke-on-Trent, creating a city ready for the future.

We are a city of strengths, with a proud heritage and bright future. Over the last decade our economical growth has outstripped the national average, and we have seen the creation of many new jobs and businesses. We are ahead of the game in the provision of digital infrastructure. We are determined that all our residents and communities should share in the benefits of our city’s continuing economic expansion.

The Housing, Regeneration and Operations Directorate at Stoke-on-Trent City Council plays an extremely important part in delivering the council’s place-making ambitions. The directorate is responsible for facilitating the regeneration of the city as well as the council’s planning and transportation, sustainability, housing, major projects, environmental, community safety, policy, parking and city security, highways and emergency planning services.
We are a stock-holding authority with close to 17,000 residential housing units across the city. Maintaining good quality and accessible social housing is a key part of our approach and our values; we know how vital it is for residents to have a safe and warm home, and the positive impact this can have on reducing inequalities and improving health and wellbeing.

A recent tenant satisfaction survey highlighted that the authority is in the top 25 per cent of registered social landlords in England – something that we are very proud of. But we know that the repairs service and how complaints are handled are areas where we need to improve. We have therefore recently taken the decision to move the repairs and maintenance function back ‘in house’.
We are seeking a new director to lead this service, which has around 480 staff and a budget of £40m. The service also covers around 400 buildings which are part of our corporate estate, including repairs and maintenance and facilities management.

We are looking for an experienced director with the skills to achieve our ambitions, drive forward culture change, deliver efficiencies and ensure that tenants and clients get the best possible service.
This role offers a fantastic opportunity to develop professionally, and deliver tangible change by support the delivery of our vision and priorities for our city.

We need a strong leader who is not afraid of a serious challenge and who has the drive, innovation, creativity and passion to see the job through. You will have a clear strategic vision. You will be able to motivate a team, giving it clarity of direction and purpose, and enable and equip it to achieve demonstrable results.

As a team player you will join our experienced and supportive senior leadership team. Close and constructive working with elected members and colleagues is essential. We are looking for a One Team approach in the design and delivery of services that are well governed, efficient and fit for purpose - whilst also fulfilling the requirements of the council’s budget and delivering best value for taxpayers.

We are committed to making Stoke-on-Trent a place where all residents can feel safe, supported and proud, and we want you to be part of this journey.

In our corporate strategy - Our City, Our Wellbeing - we have set out our vision and priorities for Stoke-on-Trent and the council as an organisation. It functions as a corporate plan for the council’s directorates and well as a blueprint for improving Stoke-on-Trent as a city through creating shared wealth and reducing inequality.

The strategy aims to create a city which is:

1. Healthier - creating a healthier standard of living for all our citizens
2. Wealthier - reducing hardship and enabling greater shared prosperity
3. Safer - building empowered communities, safe from the threat of harm
4. Greener- conserving our environment and living more sustainably
5. Cleaner - working together to clean up our city and our communities
6. Fairer- tackling inequality and improving life chances for everyone
7. Skilled – providing opportunities for people to improve their skills and education

You can find a full copy of the strategy here.