Head of Service Charges

Have you led large, complex service charge functions through change? Can you bring consistency, credibility and long-term thinking to a service under pressure? Are you comfortable managing demanding stakeholders who want results yesterday?

A large Housing Association is seeking a Head of Service Charges to provide strategic leadership across a sizeable, geographically dispersed service charge function. This is a senior role requiring deep technical knowledge, strong people leadership and the ability to operate confidently in a politically complex environment.

The service charge operation covers multiple regions, with parts of the function in steady state and others undergoing significant change. You’ll be responsible for aligning teams, embedding consistent ways of working, and ensuring the organisation is well-positioned for future legislative and regulatory change.

Key responsibilities include:

• Providing overall leadership for the Service Charge setting and administration function, covering multiple regions and teams.
• Aligning service charge processes and controls to create a single, consistent way of working across the organisation.
• Leading through change in areas of the business that are earlier in their service charge maturity.
• Addressing historic service charge challenges, including backlog management and future-year planning.
• Overseeing the production of service charge estimates and actuals, ensuring compliance with legislation and regulatory expectations.
• Acting as the senior point of contact for complex stakeholder issues across housing management, home ownership, customer accounts and property services.
• Anticipating and responding to legislative and regulatory developments impacting service charges.
• Building leadership capability within the management team and supporting succession planning.

This is a high-impact leadership role with genuine scope to shape the future of a large and complex service charge function. You’ll be trusted to bring clarity where expectations are misaligned, to balance operational reality with stakeholder pressure, and to move the service forward in a controlled and sustainable way — not through short-term fixes.

To be considered, please meet these criteria:

• Significant experience leading Service Charge functions within a large Housing Association.
• Strong technical understanding of service charge legislation, regulation and best practice.
• Proven experience managing large, multi-site teams with varying levels of capability and maturity.
• Ability to operate confidently in a politically complex environment with competing stakeholder demands.
• Evidence of leadership beyond BAU — transformation, improvement or stabilisation initiatives.
• Professional housing or service charge qualifications desirable (e.g. IRPM or similar).

This is a permanent opportunity offering hybrid working. The role requires regular visibility across multiple office locations. Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis.