Torridge District Council Jobs

Torridge District Council is the local authority for Torridge, a largely rural district in North Devon covering the market town of Bideford, the port town of Appledore, Holsworthy, Northam and the surrounding coast and countryside, with around 8,200 residents and roughly 36 staff.

Housing and homelessness services

The council's Housing team carries out the authority's statutory duties towards people who are homeless or threatened with homelessness, assessing every application for a local connection to the district and providing advice, prevention support and temporary accommodation where the legal duty applies. People fleeing domestic abuse are exempt from the usual local-connection test. The team also runs a rough sleeping service, including severe weather provision that opens extra emergency bed spaces during cold snaps, and works with professionals such as GPs, social workers and support agencies who refer people at risk of losing their home.

Alongside statutory homelessness work, the housing service covers Revenues, Benefits and Housing together, so staff in this area may also deal with housing benefit and council tax support for residents in financial difficulty, private rented sector standards, grants and loans for home improvements, and bringing long-term empty homes back into use.

Where they work and who they support

Torridge District Council supports residents across its district in North Devon, from Bideford and Appledore to smaller rural communities and the coast. Its homelessness and housing advice services are for anyone at risk of losing their home, including private and social tenants, people sleeping rough, and households fleeing domestic abuse, and the council encourages people to come forward as early as possible rather than wait until they are already homeless.

Working at Torridge District Council

The council promotes itself as "a great place to live, work and visit" and recruits under the #TeamTorridge banner across services including Housing, Revenues and Benefits, Planning and Building Control, Public Health and Community Safety, Legal and Democratic Services, Finance, and Operational Services. As a small district authority it offers staff a broad range of work and direct contact with the community, with vacancies advertised through its own careers site and a weekly jobs and careers bulletin.