"Working as a Rural Housing Enabler for North Yorkshire Council has been an amazing opportunity for me; it has allowed me to expand my skills base and develop my understanding of housing delivery whilst working as part of a dedicated strategic housing team who are passionate about what they do. The friendly and supportive nature of the team has helped me push forward with my work in the knowledge that my colleagues are happy to offer support and guidance whenever called upon.
The work is extremely interesting and every day I learn something new. I am privileged to be working across the North Yorkshire region with local communities, parish councils, Planning teams, and Registered Housing Providers, facilitating ways for us to come together to provide new affordable homes.
The work is varied and challenging, with the need for new affordable housing at the forefront of the council’s agenda. To be part of the team responsible for bringing forward the quantity and quality of homes needed for the residents of North Yorkshire is a privilege. I would highly recommend working for the team as their flexible approach and caring culture enhances the working day."
Our housing service is unique and offers the chance for you to have a fascinatingly diverse and positive career. North Yorkshire is the largest county in England and Wales, at over 8,000 square kilometres. The population is approximately 620,000, and our communities are made up of rural villages and hamlets, bustling market towns, seaside resorts and national parks. North Yorkshire’s scale, location and geography means that we work across a range of communities, and have adopted innovative and diverse approaches to meeting the housing needs of our communities.
The formation of the new council in April 2023 has given us a once in a generation opportunity; to transform services, drive innovation and improve outcomes for our communities and the people who need it most. We have effective leadership within the service who are dedicated to ensuring that their teams have the very best training, development and career opportunities. We are committed to sharing best practice, ideas and continuous growth and improvement, both as individuals and as a team, operating within a no blame culture. We have strong links to social care services, regeneration and environment teams within the council as well as our external partners, giving you the opportunity to forge long lasting and effective working relationships with colleagues.
Where individuals display potential and are interested in broadening their scope of work then our large size enables us to provide these opportunities. Our commitment to ongoing learning and development, together with diverse workload and the opportunity to work alongside industry experts allows our teams to excel professionally. We care about our people and want them to be happy and do well at work, so will work with you to ensure you have what you need to enable you to flourish.
Housing is at the forefront of our ambitions and housing professionals play a crucial role in delivering on North Yorkshire’s Housing Strategy commitments, so, if you want to make a difference, advocate for the best interests of communities, and work toward a sustainable future, consider a career in housing, it’s a path that matters!
About our service
North Yorkshire contains diverse housing markets, with varying housing needs and many challenges. We have our own housing stock of circa 8,500 homes that we are looking to improve and deliver excellent housing services alongside. Our Housing Revenue Account (HRA) Business Plan aims to deliver a minimum of 500 new homes over 5 years. We also put an improvement plan in place that will see us working towards meeting all consumer standards as set out by the Regulator for Social Housing. Alongside a range of policy, procedure and operational plan improvements, we are currently consulting on our Tenant Voice Strategy and are keen to get our tenants view on what a good service would look like. Putting our tenants at the heart of what we do is a key principle that is guiding us forward.
Our Housing Strategy demonstrates how we will use the new combined strength of the unitary authority and the advantage of being a stock holding council to unlock greater resources, access funding opportunities and accelerate housing growth and regeneration, ensuring that we deliver sustainably, and develop inclusive places. We are working closely with the York and North Yorkshire Housing Partnership on shared objectives which allows us to reach improved outcomes through collaboration. Delivering affordable housing sits at the heart of this work whilst addressing key challenges in our geography such as its rurality. Regarded as an innovator in our approach to rural delivery, we employ a team of Rural Housing Enablers, have developed a Rural Affordable Housing Model, and committed additional investment to our Community Housing Fund, all with a view to overcoming barriers to delivery and supporting a long term rural affordable housing pipeline.
We are ambitious, keen to deliver excellent housing services and to be an exemplar social landlord. We will lead by example, driving up standards across our council housing stock and taking enforcement action where we find landlords who are failing to meet safety requirements, ensuring decent and safe homes for all residents.
You can find out more about our service priorities and objectives in our housing strategy 2024-2029 (pdf / 7 MB).
Hear from our team
Janine Ledger, Rural Housing Enabler
John Burroughs, Housing Delivery Manager
"Working at North Yorkshire Council has given me the opportunity to enhance my career after working for over 14 years a Scarborough Borough Council in Housing Strategy and Development. I started my new post of Housing Delivery Manager earlier this year, giving me a real exciting opportunity working across the whole breadth of North Yorkshire and being at the forefront of our ambitions to develop at least 500 new Council homes in the county over the next 5 years.
I have been given the opportunity to develop a range of diverse and exciting projects to help develop our ambitions, and work in new locations and new partners. I manage a small but very dedicated team whose role is to deliver the various housing projects. The type of projects that we deliver range from new build to acquisitions and conversions, and also major partnership projects. Most recently, our team was able to acquire new properties in Scarborough, making them the first new Council homes to be developed in Scarborough for over 20 years. A very proud achievement!"
Our current opportunities
We currently have no vacancies.
What can we offer you?
Modern work practices, enabling colleagues to work from home or their chosen NYC base, with offices across the geography of North Yorkshire to choose from. We regularly come together as a team for development, connection and collaboration, otherwise we work where its most productive to do so. You will be provided with technology to enable efficient and effective work, ensuring that you are connected and well supported. You are provided with a comprehensive benefits package with an excellent employer defined pension scheme, enhanced holidays, flexible working to help you thrive at home and well as work.
Why work for us
We are a strong performing authority, with supportive political leadership and talented teams providing the platform to have a fulfilling, challenging and successful career in a truly stunning place.
A recent peer challenge found that the council is a good place to work, with strong leadership and a loyal and committed workforce who have access to well-regarded training and development.
We pride ourselves on being an employer of choice, offering a range of training and development opportunities and career progression allowing you to manage your own development journey and empowering you to control your career. Your career can change with your life here in North Yorkshire.
We positively encourage flexible working and we provide you with the technology you need to work from a wide variety of locations.
We believe in the importance of inclusion, which is why we are always working towards being a more diverse, equitable and inclusive employer. Find out more about our equality, diversity and inclusion work on our working for us page. You can bring your whole self to work, and we will support you to be the best that you can be.
Our values, behaviours and ambitions underpin everything we do.
In addition to your salary, we offer a range of great benefits to help you financially make life a bit easier. These include:
- a local government, career average employer contribution pension scheme
- family friendly leave
- salary sacrifice schemes
- modern flexible working practices
- learning and development packages
- career advancement opportunities
- employee discount benefits including shopping and gym discounts
- green car and cycle schemes
- travel loans
You can find more information on the range of benefits we offer on our total rewards page.
Watch this video to find out about our employee networks.
Living and working in North Yorkshire
North Yorkshire is a thriving county that adapts to a changing world and remains a special place to live and work.
North Yorkshire's natural beauty is captured in its three areas of outstanding natural parks, national nature reserves, stunning coastlines, scenic rural villages, vibrant cities and market towns. North Yorkshire really is a beautiful, thriving and special place to live and work, rich in heritage and culture.
North Yorkshire features significantly in the ten best places to live in the UK in Halifax Quality of Life Survey. The Quality-of-Life index aims to quantify where living standards are highest in the UK by ranking local performance across a range of indicators. Local areas featured in the top ten included Richmond, Selby and Malton.
Figures released by the Office for National Statistics bulletin positions North Yorkshire as the safest place in England with extremely low crime rates.
In addition, the county benefits from excellent road and rail links, with easy access via the east coast mainline, the A1(M) and A19. Leeds, York, Newcastle, Durham and Teesside are all easily commutable, and London and Edinburgh are just two hours away by train.
From its lively cities to pretty villages, rolling countryside and grand coastline, Yorkshire has so much to offer including great employment opportunities for your family members, along with a higher proportion of schools which are good or outstanding compared to national figures.
You can find out more about what North Yorkshire has to offer on the No place like North Yorkshire website and by watching our North Yorkshire video on YouTube.
Application tips
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Contact us and apply
If you feel you have the skills, passion, and drive that we are seeking, we want to hear from you!
We will not accept applications from agencies.
Key dates
Closes Sunday 12 January 2025.