Behind the job ad

The job: Decant officer

The employer: Hackney council

"Decant programme"’

We are taking down nearly 2000 homes and rebuilding them at higher density with up to 4300 on one site in north London.

The £850m project is one of the biggest in London, if not Europe, and will take more than 20 years. We need to decant people from their existing homes into vacant properties elsewhere on the estate.

"Visiting people in their own homes"

There is decant team of four and you’ll be working entirely on the Woodberry Down estate. We need people to sit down with leaseholders and council tenants, talk through issues with them and help if they want to move to another part of England.

"Ensure the project is not delayed"

You’ll need to juggle lots of different things and have good project management skills to manage works like refurbishing flats. Experience tackling difficult decants would be valued. There’s a sales aspect to the job – we have to sell the project to doubters.

"Experience"

The successful candidate might already be a decant officer somewhere else. Some knowledge of how local government works would be helpful. You don’t have to have a housing background: one chap here was in the building industry before. Having a personable manner and being able to empathise with people is more important.

Salary: £27,717-£29,169

This project could be a pathfinder for major urban regeneration schemes in Europe. So it’s an opportunity to work on a scheme that will be a model for the whole country.

Deadline: 14 March