The Regulator of Social Housing wants to know: ‘How well do you know the quality of your homes?’ It’s a question that is central to the range of challenges housing providers currently face and asset management teams are fundamental to providing the answer.

From damp and mould to disrepair and energy efficiency, understanding the condition of your homes – and the people who live in them – should be a top priority. New consumer standards for safety and quality, Awaab’s Law, the Building Safety Act and the number of complaints linked to repairs have sharpened the focus on the need to get things right.

The need for comprehensive, flexible and fully costed asset management strategies has never been greater alongside up-to-date and regular stock condition surveys that involve going into homes rather than a spreadsheet exercise. But HQN knows from the work it does with asset teams that organisations are continuing to fall short of what’s required.

This year’s Asset Management conference will provide an overview of the current state of play for asset leaders and teams, from the new era of regulation to Awaab’s Law and Decent Homes. It will provide practical guidance on how to ensure your asset management strategies and stock condition surveys are fit for purpose while highlighting the importance of resident engagement in building a 360-degree view of your housing stock and who lives in it.

Key sessions include:

• An overview of the current state of play – issues and challenges for asset teams
• The new Safety and Quality Standard – when to self-refer
• Designing a comprehensive and fully costed asset management strategy
• Getting your stock condition surveys right
• Building a 360-degree asset dashboard
• Understanding where decarbonisation fits into your priorities
• The latest on Awaab’s Law and Decent Homes
• Improving the customer experience in repairs.

Essential for:

• Asset managers and teams
• Repairs managers and teams.

Exclusive tour

An opportunity to take a tour around Central and Cecil’s Grace House, the award-winning, inclusively designed affordable housing scheme for over 55s built on the site of a former 205 unit sheltered housing scheme.

It’s right next door to the venue so, as asset management specialists, we knew you wouldn’t want to miss out on seeing these quality homes. Plus, the view over Lords Cricket ground!

Two guided tours taking place during the breaks – limited numbers so book early by emailing [email protected]

10:30am Welcome and introduction

• Mike Victory-Rowe, Associate, HQN

10:40am Keynote address – issues and challenges for the sector

• Mike Victory-Rowe, Associate, HQN

11:10am Asset Management strategies

• Jesse Meek, Executive Director for Asset Strategy and Sustainability, settle

The focus is on good asset management like never before. The sector is facing proactive consumer regulation, a robust and engaged Housing Ombudsman whilst trying to tackle issues like damp and mould, an ageing stock, and improving energy efficiency with increased costs and tight budgets.  Jesse Meek will outline the need to improve our approach to asset management strategies to meet these challenges and more.  He will outline the issues he and his team face at settle and share his insight and learning from their approach so far.

11:40am Break

12:00pm The safety and quality standard and self-referrals

• Will Perry, Director of Strategy, RSH

Will Perry, Director of Strategy at the Regulator of Social Housing will outline the requirements of the safety and quality standard and provide an overview of what the RSH expects from providers in terms of good quality data, providing assurance and evidence of compliance and meeting the decent homes standard.  He will share the RSH’s learning so far on the common issues they are finding in relation to this standard during inspections, what has led to the some of the recent C3 judgements resulting from self-referrals as well as what those who have received a C1 rating got right to achieve that grade.

12:30pm Self-referral: the road to recovery

• Ian Frazer, Executive Director of Asset Management, Cornwall Housing

We have recently had some of the first C3 consumer ratings following a self-referral to the Regulator of Social Housing and we can expect more to come as organisations get to grips with the new proactive consumer regulation regime and issues emerge that require a referral.  In this session Ian Frazer will share Cornwall Housing’s journey after referring themselves to the RSH and drawing up the improvement action plan they are now implementing to return to compliance.

1:00pm Lunch

2:00pm Welcome back  

• Mike Victory-Rowe, Associate, HQN

2:05pm Update on government social housing policies

• Chloe Fletcher, Director, HQN

2:35pm Meeting Net Zero – how to make the most of all opportunities

• Jonny Mobbs, Head of Sustainability, Midland Heart

Although the UK Government has had overarching climate targets set out in legislation for some time with specific requirements for social housing, the funding available for energy efficiency programmes has been complex, changeable and short term over recent years.  This session will look at how sustainability can be built into a long-term asset management strategy but at the same time be nimble enough to take the opportunities of government or other funding if and when it becomes available.  Jonny Mobbs will set out what Midland Heart has done over the past few years to build in the learning from their SHDF programmes and mainstream as much sustainability work as possible whilst still being ready to make the most of any opportunity that presents itself.

3:05pm Break

3:25pm Tackling disrepair

• Aisha Akhtar, Head of Legal, Sovereign Network Homes & Associate and Trainer, HQN

As disrepair claims rise within the sector, sometimes driven by claims management companies, not always acting in the best interest of the tenant. Aisha Akthar will provide a practical session both from her perspective as Head of Legal at Sovereign Network and as a trainer and associate for HQN.  She will outline how working with colleagues across her organisation ensures not only a customer focused response that resolves the issue as quickly as possible but also ensures the legal process is followed and dubious claims are correctly challenged.  She will draw upon recent experience to provide case studies and top tips for all social housing landlords.

3:55pm Customer delight and our greatest lessons learnt

• Ruth Dent, Director of Assets and Compliance, Believe Housing

As the Housing Ombudsman calls for evidence to inform its next Spotlight report which will explore common issues in housing maintenance and the TSM results are likely to highlight how unhappy many tenants are with their repairs service and the quality of their homes, improving customer service is a must for social landlords.  Ruth Dent from believe housing will share their approach to creating customer delight with their investment programme.  She will showcase examples of where consulting residents and making relatively quick and inexpensive changes have resulted in increased satisfaction in a variety of areas.

4:25pm Chair’s summing up

• Mike Victory-Rowe, Associate, HQN

4:30pm Close

About Mobysoft

Mobysoft works in partnership with the housing sector and provides a software solution, RepairSense.

RepairSense uses the latest Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) technology to mine, analyse and interpret repairs data. It equips housing providers with actionable insights to increase repairs quality & sustainability, reduce repairs demand and improve tenant satisfaction. With its AI-driven core and customer-centric support, RepairSense is revolutionising repairs management and provides social landlords with actionable repairs intelligence.

Key Features of RepairSense

• Identify & reduce repeat repairs
• Enable a quality-first culture
• Provide accurate forecasts & KPI reports
• Minimise complaints & disrepair
• Identify & resolve damp & mould issues
• Monitor contractor repairs quality
• Improve the quality & sustainability of repairs
• Increase trades team capacity
• Provide assurance to the board and regulators.

About Birketts

Birketts is a full service, top 100 law firm in the UK. With a dedicated social housing team, they’ve worked with a vast range of clientele, including national and regional registered providers, local authorities, private housebuilders and funders on a wide range of issues affecting the sector. Birketts understand that social housing is an ever-changing environment, subject to frequent changes driven by government demands, new legislation and the economy. They have particular strengths in development (including stock transfer) and its related discipline sectors: construction, planning and projects. Allied to this, they can call on their well-established plot sales function to support RP development teams – this is particularly important as the range of homeownership products increases and for those RPs who employ private sales to cross-subsidise schemes. They have a wealth of experience in housing management issues, particularly in relation to nuisance and antisocial behaviour. In addition, they have skilled advisers covering your core business needs, such as employment law and funding.

Mike Victory-Rowe, HQN Associate

Mike is a chartered building surveyor with 30 years’ property asset management and social housing experience. Mike has extensive experience in senior managerial and leadership roles in a customer-facing housing organisation across multiple service areas. As Assistant Director of Asset Management for Knightstone Housing (2007-2016), he had responsibility for the development and delivery of strategic asset management. Over the last 7 years, Mike has helped social housing landlords develop their strategic asset management thinking and produces asset management strategies and delivery plans.

Jesse Meek, Executive Director for Asset Strategy and Sustainability, settle

Jesse has a 20-year housing background in asset management and property services. In his current role as executive director of asset strategy and sustainability at Letchworth-based housing association settle, Jesse is responsible for the organisation’s repairs service, long-term investment in homes and keeping properties safe, supporting more than 23,000 residents in over 10,000 homes. Jesse is also responsible for settle’s sustainability strategy, making sure this delivers real benefits to customers and neighbourhoods. Jesse was previously director of asset and building safety at One Housing and is also a non-executive director at Magna Housing.

With a focus on our built environment, Jesse is interested in how we address the issue of sustaining assets now, and in the longer term, in order for customers to live well in the place they call home. He is qualified with Batchelors and Masters degrees in Construction and Real Estate and an Associate Fellow at the University College of Estate Management.

Will Perry, Director of Strategy, RSH

Will heads the regulator’s strategy function, including private finance, policy, registrations, new entrants, business intelligence and stakeholder relations. Recently he has been leading the development of the Regulator’s response to the Social Housing White Paper.

A qualified chartered accountant, he has previously worked in corporate finance lead advisory, government audit and housing consultancy and is a non-executive director of The Housing Finance Corporation.

Ian Frazer, Executive Director of Asset Management, Cornwall Housing

Ian has over 25 years’ experience of working in social housing, having progressed from being an electrician in his early career through to his current position as Executive Director of Asset Management at Cornwall Housing. He has worked for every type of housing provider, including a Council Housing Department, ALMO and Housing Association. He has experience in delivering a large scale voluntary stock transfer and developing a DLO with over 100 operatives responsible for responsive repairs, voids repairs and compliance. Ian has also overseen teams responsible for the delivery of planned maintenance programmes and major capital projects, including the replacement of ACM cladding on the three high rise towers blocks in Plymouth that made national headlines and was latterly highlighted for its best practice in involving residents in major works. Ian joined Cornwall Housing in November 2022, as part of a new Executive and Senior Leadership Team drafted in to drive transformational change across the organisation and achieve the improvements required by the Regulator. Ian continues to work towards improving strategic asset management and compliance at Cornwall Housing, as well as ensuring the organisation meets the requirements of the new Consumer Standards and inspection regime.

Chloe Fletcher

Chloe has worked in the social housing sector for over 25 years since her first role in housing management with JSS Pinnacle as a trainee housing officer. She completed a Masters in Housing with Professional Qualification at the London School of Economics in 1998 and then moved into housing policy, working on behalf of the London boroughs, initially for London Housing Unit and then London Councils. She joined the National Federation of ALMOs (NFA) in 2007 working with members, government officials and wider housing stakeholders to develop NFA policy and support the ALMO movement.  She has recently left her role as Policy Director at the NFA and joined HQN as Director, working across the business and bringing her knowledge and experience to the wider sector.

Jonny Mobbs, Head of Sustainability, Midland Heart

Since leaving university as a postgraduate, Jonny has worked across multiple organisations in private and public sectors, leading on environment, energy and net zero strategy. He joined Midland Heart as Head of Sustainability in November 2021 – a new position within the organisation. His role is to lead net zero and sustainability strategy as Midland Heart focus on being fit for the future today and develop their corporate plan beyond 2025.

Aisha Akhtar, Head of Legal, Sovereign Network Homes & Associate and Trainer, HQN

Aisha qualified as a lawyer in 2009 having taken a keen interest in social housing. She has worked both in-house and in private practice. She joined Network Homes in October 2017 as their in-house social housing expert. She manages a team and deals with all housing management matters.

She has been a board member for a housing association previously in East London and is currently an Advisory Board member for Inspirited Minds (a mental health Charity).

She has delivered training sessions throughout the country on various topics throughout her career. She regularly delivers both public and tailor made in-house training to various HAs and LAs.

Aisha really enjoys delivering training and empowering people, she makes the sessions interactive so there is an exchange of ideas so delegates leave feeling confident in implementing positive change.

Ruth Dent, believe housing

An asset professional with extensive experience in social housing, Ruth is Director of Assets and Compliance at County Durham-based housing association believe housing.

Her strength in data analytics ensures robust asset information is used effectively to assess the performance of 18,000 varied properties and to develop place-based approaches to investment.

She steers an ambitious environmental plan for both business and property portfolios.

Ruth leads on extensive upgrading and retrofitting schemes, incorporating new technology where appropriate. She works with all parts of the business to promote efficient and innovative ways of working and is passionate about good customer service and engagement.

If you are unable to attend an event or public training course, please let us know in writing (email is fine) at least 48 hours before. Please email [email protected]

Otherwise, a cancellation fee of £60 plus VAT will be chargeable.

If you are using a package place to attend and do not inform us within the agreed time frame, then a place will be taken to cover your non-attendance.

Cancellations must be made in writing, and will be acknowledged by HQN Limited.