Because of the nature of the work and the high-profile cases the officer is currently involved in, we have agreed not to share their name or local authority. But don’t let this distract you from their story; it gives a valuable insight into the role of a local authority enforcement officer, working to keep local communities, and themselves, safe. 

Starting out: How I found my way into housing enforcement 

I first started working in local government in 2018. I somehow managed to demonstrate enough transferable skills from the private sector to start working in the counter-fraud team. In this role, I learned the bread and butter of criminal investigation work – asking lots of questions, looking for lines of enquiry, encouraging witnesses to give witness statements, obtaining evidence and, of course, explaining to suspects that they do not have to say anything, but it may harm their defence if they do not mention something when questioned, something which they later rely on in court. Those early investigation foundations later proved invaluable when I moved into environmental health, and later trading standards. 

Having established myself in counter-fraud, I wanted to continue learning and challenge myself in a different enforcement environment. Housing enforcement appealed to me because of the variety of work, the breadth of legislation involved and the opportunity to make a tangible difference to people’s living conditions. It also offered wider opportunities for professional growth and career progression, making it an exciting next step in my enforcement career. 

I worked in housing for about six years. I obtained a Level 5 diploma in Private Sector Housing Interventions from Middlesex University, which was a major milestone for me. I also obtained professional recognition for my skills by becoming a Registered Housing Health Practitioner and Member of the Chartered Institute of Environmental Health (CIEH).  

Why I moved from environmental health to trading standards 

A combination of professional interests and personal ambition drove my shift from environmental health into trading standards. Through previous work as a counter-fraud officer, I had already built strong relationships within the trading standards team in my local authority and had developed a good understanding of their work. I found myself increasingly drawn to the regulatory and investigative aspects of enforcement, which aligned closely with my strengths and interests. While environmental health encompasses a broad range of responsibilities, I was particularly interested in the more evidence-led, enforcement-focused approach that trading standards offered. Of course, trading standards teams are bound by the Regulators’ Code and, like environmental health, will always seek to educate and advise businesses that are willing to comply before considering formal enforcement action. What particularly attracted me to trading standards, however, was the opportunity to work on larger-scale and more complex investigations, often involving organised or deliberate offending. The prospect of tackling issues with a wider consumer impact and undertaking more in-depth investigative work strongly appealed to me. 

Another significant factor was the opportunity to enrol immediately on a Level 6 trading standards apprenticeship. This was of particular interest to me because when I was younger, I lacked the focus and motivation to pursue higher education, something I came to regret more as I progressed through my career. By my thirties, I had developed a real appetite for learning and professional development, and the apprenticeship offered a chance to gain a degree-level qualification whilst continuing to work in a profession I was passionate about.  

It felt like an opportunity that not only supported my career ambitions but also allowed me to achieve a goal I had long felt I had missed earlier in life. 

A taste of trading standards: Raids, warrants and organised crime 

I’ll be honest: I underestimated the scale of criminality in the consumer sector. Within months, I was reading BBC reports about organised crime groups targeting trading standards officers at their homes. I found myself working alongside HMRC, regional organised crime units and the National Crime Agency. And then came the moment that really hit home. 

During my first week, I was told I would be supporting the team on an operation at a local shop suspected of selling illicit tobacco. When I was handed a stab-proof vest before we set off, I genuinely thought someone was joking. A colleague then explained that intelligence suggested individuals at the premises may have access to weapons, and that such personal protective equipment was standard practice for this type of work. It was a real eye-opener and my first glimpse into a side of regulatory enforcement that I had never previously encountered. 

The trading standards skills that are transferable to environmental health 

One of the most valuable lessons I took from trading standards was the importance of intelligence gathering and understanding the potential risks posed by the individuals I was dealing with. Looking back on my time in environmental health, I now realise there were significant gaps in my approach. It had never occurred to me to contact the police to see what intelligence they might hold about the subjects of my investigations, whether that was an unlicensed HMO landlord or another non-compliant operator. 

Through established information-sharing arrangements, trading standards teams can access police intelligence via dedicated single points of contact (SPOCs), allowing enquiries to be made against both the Police National Computer and the Police National Database. Early in my trading standards career, a colleague suggested I make these enquiries into a rogue trader I was investigating before arranging an interview under caution. 

The results were sobering. The individual had more than 40 previous convictions for violence, and intelligence held by the police suggested they may have access to firearms. What struck me most was that, had I not heeded this colleague’s suggestion, I would likely have arranged to interview this person in a standard meeting room within the council offices without a second thought. 

That experience fundamentally changed my perspective on enforcement work. It reinforced the importance of considering officer safety, seeking out all available intelligence and recognising that regulatory offending does not exist in isolation. The person standing in front of you may be under investigation for housing, environmental or consumer protection offences, but they may also have a much broader history of criminality that significantly changes the risks involved in dealing with them. 

This intelligence-led approach is, in my view, one of the biggest opportunities that environmental health teams can build on.  

Through initiatives such as Operation Jigsaw, environmental health practitioners and enforcement officers can now contribute to and access the Intelligence Database (IDB). This is a national intelligence-sharing platform that has been well established within trading standards for many years. Today, checking and updating IDB is simply part of my daily routine. 

Looking back, it seems obvious, but when I worked in housing enforcement, I hadn’t stopped to consider that a landlord I was investigating might also be known to neighbouring authorities. Why wouldn’t they be? Rogue landlords, much like rogue traders, do not limit their activities to a single local authority area. Yet I now realise how many opportunities there were to collaborate, share intelligence and learn from colleagues elsewhere. 

I’ll admit that when I first started using IDB, I struggled to see its value. Updating records, sanitising intelligence logs and uploading information felt like an administrative task that competed with more pressing work. At the time, I probably thought I could spend my day more productively. 

My perspective changed almost overnight when I received a notification from a trading standards team more than 150 miles away. They had come across intelligence I had uploaded in relation to an investigation and believed they held information that could assist me. The details they provided were exactly what I had been missing. It gave me a new line of enquiry and significantly strengthened my case. 

In that moment, all of the time spent recording and sharing intelligence suddenly made sense. The hours invested in maintaining accurate records were repaid many times over by information I could never have obtained on my own. It reinforced something that trading standards understands exceptionally well:  

Intelligence is only truly valuable when it is shared.  

For me, that is perhaps one of the most important lessons that environmental health can take from their trading standards counterparts. Operation Jigsaw has made it easier than ever to reach out to other regulators through platforms such as the Knowledge Hub and RIAMS Communities.  

One thing I miss from my time in housing enforcement is the flexibility that came with civil penalties, introduced through the Housing and Planning Act 2016 and further expanded by the Renters’ Rights Act 2025. The option to impose substantial financial penalties without a criminal prosecution gives officers a valuable enforcement tool and often allows cases to be resolved more efficiently. 

Looking back, however, I wonder whether this flexibility also made me slightly complacent in the way I approached evidence gathering and case preparation. In trading standards, particularly when dealing with serious non-compliance, deliberate offending or cases involving significant consumer detriment, the available enforcement options are much more limited. In most cases, a trip to the magistrates’ court is a minimum. Even the ironically named ‘Civil Enforcement Regime’ under the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024 (think Housing Act 2004, but about consumers and traders) still requires a magistrates’ court hearing. 

As a result, the required standard of evidence is exceptionally high. Every document, photograph, witness statement and exhibit must be capable of withstanding detailed examination by defence solicitors and barristers who are actively looking for weaknesses in the prosecution case. 

One colleague described a recent rogue trading prosecution in which the defence spent 2 days challenging the admissibility of photographic evidence because the metadata associated with the images did not fully align with details contained within the officer’s statement. The issue was ultimately resolved, and the prosecution was successful, but it was another eye-opening moment for me. Prior to joining trading standards, I hadn’t considered that something as seemingly minor as image metadata could become the focus of such intense legal scrutiny. 

It reinforced an important lesson:  

Good evidence is not simply about proving an offence occurred. It is about being able to demonstrate, beyond challenge, exactly how that evidence was obtained, handled and preserved.  

That mindset has undoubtedly made me a better investigator and is something I would use in any environmental health role. I can foresee this becoming much more apparent in housing enforcement, with the wider implementation of the Renters’ Rights Act and substantial penalties on the line.  

What environmental health can offer trading standards 

It’s not all one-way traffic when it comes to transferable skills between trading standards and environmental health. Environmental health practitioners and technical officers have a sophisticated toolkit of formal interventions outside of the court process such as notices, orders and financial penalties.   

In 2020, the CTSI (think CIEH but for trading standards) determined that trading standards services enforce over 250 pieces of legislation, and while officers use some more than others, they all have a vital role to play in protecting UK consumers. However, because of the breadth of legislation, trading standards officers have few formal ways of dealing with matters outside the courtroom. This has begun to shift in recent years, with the introduction of civil penalties under the Tenant Fees Act, as well as the licensing regime and civil penalties that the Tobacco and Vapes Act will introduce. With these new powers, will come appeals to the First-tier tribunal, something for which I have a great deal of experience to share.  

Because practitioners working in environmental health carry out risk-based inspections, we are also experts in translating why a particular example of non-compliance poses a risk to the public.  

Sure, you could try to explain to an HMO landlord why the management regulations mean that they must ensure that any window with a sill that is at or near floor level has safeguards to protect the occupiers against the potential for accidental falls, but I always found that framing the matter in a more relatable way to be more fruitful. Explaining how some students like to have a cigarette out the window at 3 a.m. after a few too many and that putting some window restrictors on can, as well as mitigating any liability on the landlord from anyone falling out of the third-floor window, also give enough of a nudge to that occupier to consider perhaps just going downstairs and sitting in the garden instead, incentivised many a landlord.  

Final advice for anyone working in local authority enforcement 

Your job is hard. We are under‑resourced, often criticised from both sides and constantly adapting to shifting political priorities. But we are not alone. 

Reach out to colleagues in other teams. Reach out to neighbouring authorities. Share intelligence. Ask questions. Compare notes. That one nugget of information might be the missing piece of your entire case. 

And invest in your investigatory skills: structured interviewing, evidence handling, case file management. Platforms like RIAMS provide clear procedures to support you, and RHE Training offers a variety of courses, such as Investigation Skills and PACE, four half-day webinars that will improve your abilities and strengthen consistency across all regulatory services. 

Most importantly, remember why we do this: we are all here to make our communities safer, fairer and better places to live.