Communities, Housing and Environment

At Leeds City Council we work hard to achieve our goal of making Leeds the best city in the UK and our Communities, Housing and Environment directorate plays an instrumental part in that.

From tackling poverty and inequality for everyone who calls Leeds home, to protecting the environment and keeping the city’s streets clean, there is a role for everyone in this area of the council.

Our teams work hard to enable every community in the city to have safe connected spaces, with easy access to a local park or green space to be active and to play. Our parks team maintain these spaces and many roles involve working in stunning surroundings such as Roundhay Park, Temple Newsam and Lotherton.

We work around the clock to serve our communities including by running the city’s hubs and libraries, registrar services and managing welfare and benefits payments. We also have teams looking after elections, licensing enquiries and parking services. Our LeedsWatch team provides public space CCTV which is monitored 24/7 and other Safer Leeds security services across the city, ensuring everyone can stay as safe as possible.

Improving the lives of our residents is at the heart of the work we do, and we have a number of teams focused on improving community safety by preventing domestic abuse, anti-social behaviour and hate crime.

Our housing service is home to multiple teams that are responsible for social housing across Leeds and extensive work to prevent homelessness. We also work with housing providers, landlords, tenants, and communities to improve poor quality housing, so everyone can have a home that supports good health and wellbeing.

Other teams within this directorate lead our response to the climate emergency as well as our ongoing work to improve air quality. We also have teams tackling financial inclusion including by improving access to benefit and welfare services, signposting and referring to partner services that can help those in need and co-ordinating projects to mitigate the impacts of the cost of living crisis.

Our 10 community committees represent different parts of the city and allocate money to fund community projects and youth activities in their areas. These committees ensure local people have a say in decisions about what happens in their neighbourhoods. Our priority neighbourhoods ensure that the city’s most deprived areas are prioritised when it comes to regeneration and investment.

When people think of a council’s key responsibilities, they often think about their bins. Several key environmental services sit within this directorate that manage the city’s household waste and help to keep our neighbourhoods clean. Our refuse service empties half a million black, green and brown bins every week across Leeds. We also have teams working at our eight household waste and recycling centres around the clock, as well as our Cleaner Neighbourhoods Team that sweeps streets, empties litter bins, removes fly tipped waste and undertakes environmental enforcement actions among other things. We are also proud of our innovative and hard-hitting Serious Environmental Crime Team who work closely with the police and other enforcement agencies to track down and take fly tippers to court.

This directorate is large and diverse but no matter which team you are based in you will be surrounded by colleagues who share the same values and are equally committed to improving the lives of our residents.

Browse our available roles and take the first step towards joining Team Leeds today.

 

 

Climate, Energy and Green Spaces

We are committed to a sustainable city, with clean air and accessible nature-rich green spaces to benefit communities in Leeds.

Housing

Our vision is to meet the city’s housing needs and build sustainable communities, providing good, affordable homes with support for those who need it.

Elections and Regulatory Services

We manage all aspects of licensing, deliver local and national elections and other polls, enforce health and safety legislation in the retail and service sector and more.

Safer, Stronger Communities

We work to improve community safety and develop stronger, more resilient, and cohesive communities across Leeds.

Community hubs, Welfare and Business support

We work in the heart of communities, helping residents with benefits, money advice and access to services, support and information.

Environmental Services

We provide essential frontline services to manage household waste, recycle more and keep our neighbourhoods and city centre clean.