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Housing Maintenance Officer with Denbighshire Social Services & Housing - Aled

Being a Housing Maintenance Officer means that I look after the council’s housing stock. This involves assessing maintenance and structural work that needs to be carried out. I also look after the estates – fencing, pathways and that kind of thing.

I’ve been in post for 4 years now, based in County Hall in Ruthin. Before that I was a joiner, working first in Deeside maintaining pubs, and then for Denbighshire County Council. I joined the council with a view to moving into office-based work.

There are good and bad points to my job. One thing I don’t enjoy is getting phone calls from tenants who are upset because they don’t understand that we have to categorise emergency work. We have to apply different timescales according to the priority of the work, and it’s difficult to explain that to someone who can’t see why they aren’t being given priority for repairs.

The good points are that I work with really good people, and I get to go out to assess properties, so I’m not tied to my desk all day. I really enjoy the work, and the good points far outweigh the bad.

The training I’ve undertaken includes a City & Guilds Award in Joinery, a 5-year apprenticeship, an HNC and I am now studying for a degree in Housing Maintenance. My degree is being supported by the council, and I attend college at Glyndwr University, Wrexham, one day each week. I will complete the course in 2 years.

I would definitely recommend working for Denbighshire to anyone thinking of moving to work for a local authority. The flexible working and pension schemes are fantastic, and they’ve supported me in gaining extra qualifications to help me progress in my career.

Hopefully in the future I would like to progress to become a Senior Officer, and perhaps a Principal Officer after that. I would like to stay within the Housing Department, but I also have the option of moving into another department if the right opportunity comes up. I’m happy where I am for now, and I’ll just have to wait and see what happens in future.