Members only

With the new consumer standards and inspections now in full swing, this year’s HQN Annual Conference will explore the new landscape. We’ll provide the right mix of practical advice on the issues you are grappling with right now like preparing for professionalism, tackling the quality of your homes and being ready for inspection as well as bringing you thought provoking keynote speakers such as Darren McGarvey and Kwajo Tweneboa plus the space to reflect on what might be coming down the track with a new government.

Held over two days. The first day is a virtual event and the second an opportunity to get together with colleagues from across the country to reflect, network and discuss the most significant issues affecting social housing today at our central London venue, The View.

On the first virtual day key sessions include:

• Adam Lent on “how to lead the public sector in the permacrisis”, taking his recent thoughts on radical leadership in the wider public sector to the social housing sector
• Aileen Evans, CEO of Grand Union Housing Group on Knowing Your Tenants, understanding vulnerability and using the data
• Sam Pratt from the Shared Health Foundation on how to improve services and the quality of homes in Temporary Accommodation
• Jill Haley, President of the Chartered Institute of Housing on improving professionalism in the sector and the conduct and competency standard
• Housing‘s Next Generation competition Grand Final – Task 1
• Housing after the election – what will a new government bring?

On our final face to face day key sessions include:

• Darren McGarvey – a political activist, rapper and broadcaster whose new BBC documentary Darren McGarvey: The State We’re In takes an unflinching look at the UK’s public services, with privileged access to hospitals, schools and prisons.
• Kwajo Tweneboa, is an incredible force for change, fighting for improvements in social housing. Now a writer and broadcaster, his recent Channel 4 documentary Untold: Help! exposed the shocking conditions in Britain’s rental properties. His first book Our Country in Crisis: Britain’s Housing Emergency and How We Rebuild is published in July.
• Kate Dodsworth, Chief of Regulatory Engagement at the Regulator of Social Housing, with the latest on consumer regulation and inspection
• The Housing Ombudsman, Richard Blakeway and Lord Richard Best in discussion on a future royal commission “to reimagine the future of social housing”
• Housing’s Next Generation competition and winner.

Practical sessions on:

• Professionalism in housing
• Homelessness and Temporary Accommodation
• Housing management
• Lessons learned from mock and pilot inspections
• Resident Engagement.

Confirmed speakers:

Darren McGarvey is a political activist, rapper and broadcaster whose book Poverty Safari: Understanding the Anger of Britain’s Underclass won the prestigious Orwell prize in 2018. His new BBC documentary Darren McGarvey: The State We’re In takes an unflinching look at the UK’s public services, with privileged access to hospitals, schools and prisons.

Kwajo Tweneboa is an incredible force for change, fighting for improvements in social housing. He creates tangible change for tenants by working with the government, charities and other organisations. Now a writer and broadcaster, his recent Channel 4 documentary Untold: Help! exposed the shocking conditions in Britain’s rental properties. His first book Our Country in Crisis: Britain’s Housing Emergency and How We Rebuild is published in July.

Richard Blakeway, the Housing Ombudsman, overwhelmed by complaints about the quality of some social housing, recently called for an independent royal commission “to reimagine the future of social housing” and re-establish the link between housing and health.

Lord Richard Best, previously chief executive of the National Housing Federation and the Joseph Rowntree Foundation and the secretary to the Duke of Edinburgh’s Inquiry into British Housing (1984-1991) which marked the 100th Anniversary of the Royal Commission into the Housing of the Working Classes 1885.

Kate Dodsworth, Chief of Regulatory Engagement at RSH with the latest on consumer regulation and inspection

More speakers to be announced soon…

Essential for:

• Housing association chief executives
• LA senior executives
• ALMO chief executives
• Executive directors
• Senior housing leaders
• Housing Strategy leaders
• Policy managers and officers
• Board members
• Councillors
• Senior council staff.

Full details to be announced. For more information contact [email protected]

Tuesday, 16 July 2024 Day one: Virtual 10.30 to 3.45

10.30 Welcome and introduction

• • Alistair McIntosh, Chief Executive, HQN

10.40 Leadership Now: how to lead the social housing sector in the permacrisis

• • Adam Lent, Director of the New Local Government Network

11.10 Knowing Your Tenants, understanding vulnerability and using the data

• • Aileen Evans, Group Chief Executive, Grand Union Housing Group

11.40 break

11.55 Tenant engagement: how to make tenant’s views count throughout your organisation

TBC

12.35 – Improving the quality of Temporary Accommodation

• • Sam Pratt, Shared Health Foundation, secretariat to the Households in Temporary Accommodation APPG

The session will cover the work and research of members of the APPG to present solutions to improve the health, lives and experiences of people living in temporary accommodation across England.

1.15 Lunch  – 45 mins

2.00pm  Professionalisation: how the new conduct and competency standard can drive improvement and motivation in social housing

• • Jill Haley, President Elect, Chartered Institute of Housing

Jill will update everyone on the professionalisation agenda, what she believes we will gain as a sector, her Be EPIC campaign for the CIH and what landlords should be doing to prepare whilst we wait for the final standards.

2.30pm Housing‘s Next Generation competition Grand Final – Task 1

There will be a chance to vote for your favourite after task 1 with the final on Thursday.

3.10pm Housing after the election

TBC

3.40pm Closing remarks

• • Alistair McIntosh, HQN

Thursday, 18 July 2024 10.30 to 5.00, followed by Drinks Reception

10.30am Welcome and Introduction

• • Alistair McIntosh, Chief Executive, HQN

10.40am The State We’re In

• • Darren McGarvey 

Darren McGarvey is a political activist, rapper and broadcaster whose book Poverty Safari: Understanding the Anger of Britain’s Underclass won the prestigious Orwell prize in 2018. His new BBC documentary Darren McGarvey: The State We’re In takes an unflinching look at the UK’s public services, with privileged access to hospitals, schools and prisons. Darren will share his thoughts from that work on what our public services need right now.

11.15am Reflections on the need for a royal commission on housing

Richard Blakeway, the Housing Ombudsman, overwhelmed by complaints about the quality of some social housing, recently called for an independent royal commission “to reimagine the future of social housing” and re-establish the link between housing and health. He will outline why he felt the need to do that and what he is hoping for.

Lord Richard Best, previously chief executive of the National Housing Federation and the Joseph Rowntree Foundation was the secretary to the Duke of Edinburgh’s Inquiry into British Housing (1984-1991) which marked the 100th Anniversary of the Royal Commission into the Housing of the Working Classes 1885. He will share his thoughts on what a royal commission now could achieve.

11.45am Panel discussion and Q&A

12.15pm Break

12.30pm The Housing’s Next Generation Grand Final: Task 2

• • Introduced by Donna Cezair, Chief Executive of Worthing Homes

1.10 Lunch

2.10 Consumer regulation and inspection: how is it going?

• • Kate Dodsworth, Chief of Regulatory Engagement at the Regulator of Social Housing

2.40 Home improvements: ensuring we provide decent homes   

• • Wayne Hughes, HQN Associate

3.10 break

3.25 HQN mock inspections: lessons learned

• • Lydia Dlaboha, Deputy Chief Executive, HQN and Damian Roche, Director HQN

16.00 An interview with Kwajo Twenboa

Kwajo Tweneboa is an incredible force for change, fighting for improvements in social housing. He creates tangible change for tenants by working with the government, charities and other organisations. Now a writer and broadcaster, his recent Channel 4 documentary Untold: Help! exposed the shocking conditions in Britain’s rental properties. His first book Our Country in Crisis: Britain’s Housing Emergency and How We Rebuild is published in July.

16.30 Final remarks

• • Alistair McIntosh, HQN

16.40 Housing’s Next Generation: winner announced

17.00 Conference close

17.00 Drinks reception

Alistair McIntosh, Chief Executive, HQN

Alistair McIntosh is one of the social housing sector’s most respected and best known personalities.

As founder and Chief Executive of HQN, he is regarded as one of the foremost advisers on governance and regulation, specialising in VfM and stress testing. His hands-on approach sees Alistair leading on all HQN’s in-depth assessment mock exercises and support work, designing and running the popular Iron Grip sessions and chairing/speaking at conferences and events.

Career highlights include setting up and running the National Federation of ALMOs, leading the popular consultation on the regulatory standards for housing, and developing an approach to VfM that won praise from the housing minister.

A regular contributor to the housing press, Alistair’s columns are known for their humorous, pointed and painfully accurate assessment of the state of social housing.

Kwajo Tweneboa, Campaigner

Kwajo is a Social Housing Campaigner from south London, fighting for better living conditions for tenants across the United Kingdom. He started this work over a year ago now after living in poor social housing for years with my family and being ignored. The Campaign has been successful so far, being mentioned in Parliament to being on National news and now he helps other tenants suffering get answers from their providers.

Lord Richard Best, Independent, House of Lords

Richard Best is an Independent in the House of Lords. He chairs the Oxford University Commission on Creating Healthy Cities; he is Co-Chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Housing and Care for Older People; he is a past Chair of Hannover Housing Association, The Property Ombudsman, The Affordable Housing Commission. He is a past President of the Local Government Association and current President of the Sustainable Energy Association. He was Chief Executive, Joseph Rowntree Foundation for 18 years.

Kate Dodsworth, Chief of Regulatory Engagement, RSH

Kate started her career in homelessness in 1992, working firstly with rough sleepers in Birmingham through to managing a large hostel for single homeless in Brighton for five years. She gained a Masters degree in Housing in 2003 and moved to the National Housing Federation where she performed a variety of roles; latterly Assistant Director. Kate moved to AmicusHorizon in 2013 (Optivo from 2017) becoming Executive Director of People and Communications. She was Chief Executive of Gateway Housing for three years before taking up her current role with the Regulator of Social Housing. Kate was an external examiner for Westminster University until 2020 and a founder member of Leadership2025.

Richard Blakeway, Housing Ombudsman, Housing Ombudsman Service

Richard was appointed as Housing Ombudsman from 1 September 2019. He has extensive experience in the housing sector, with previous roles including Deputy Mayor of London for Housing, chair of the Homes for London board and non-executive director of Homes England. During his eight years at the Greater London Authority, Richard was responsible for a major investment programme, overseeing the delivery of 100,000 affordable homes and regeneration plans for 670 hectares of land owned by the authority. Richard led the creation of the first team at City Hall to address rough sleeping, commissioning around £10 million of services each year, as well as the first Social Impact Bond on homelessness.

Aileen Evans, Group Chief Executive, Grand Union Housing Group

Aileen Evans is Chief Executive Officer of Grand Union Housing Group and at the end of June 2021 completed her term as the president of the Chartered Institute of Housing, the professional body for those working in housing.

A qualified coach and NLP master practitioner she has a strong interest in understanding healthy organisational cultures and the impact on performance.

An emerging mental health campaigner, she was, as part of her presidential campaign, working with the metal health charity MIND to provide a guide for housing organisations on creating mentally health organisations and had set a fundraising target of £50K to support MIND this year.

Sam Pratt, Shared Health Foundation

Sam Pratt is the Policy and Communications Lead for Shared Health Foundation. Shared Health is a clinically led, evidence based not-for-profit based in Oldham, Greater Manchester and whose aim is to reduce the impact of poverty on health. Sam has a passion for social justice and tackling health inequalities in the most deprived neighbourhoods.

Jill Haley, President Elect, Chartered Institute of Housing

Jill is an accomplished chief executive and housing professional with extensive leadership skills, knowledge and experience. She is a fellow member of the Chartered Institute of Housing (CIH) and a Chartered Management Institute level 5 qualified coach and mentor.

Having spent the majority of her 42-year career in social housing, working with diverse and disadvantaged communities, her experience has included a path of continuous learning and personal development, across housing association, local authority, and the private sector. 

Throughout her career, Jill’s enthusiasm for excellence in leadership has inspired her to develop further and to develop others. Her work on leading and empowering staff and communities has attracted both regional and national recognition, including various personal and organisational awards. The story surrounding the success of her transformational leadership approach while chief executive in Byker, Newcastle, has been included as a chapter in a book titled ‘Hope Under Neoliberal Austerity’ published in April 2021.

Jill is Vice President of the CIH, the independent professional standards body of the housing sector and is ordained to become president in 2023. She is a non-executive director of a large mental health NHS foundation trust in the North of England, where she also chairs the People, Culture and Diversity Committee.

Adam Lent, Director of the New Local Government Network

Adam Lent is a Senior Consultant in the Leadership and Organisational Development Team at The King’s Fund. He has worked for the last twenty years on public sector innovation and public service reform with a particular focus on community-led approaches, new models of leadership and organisational culture change. Prior to joining The King’s Fund he was Chief Executive of New Local for over seven years – a think-tank and peer-learning network seeking to deliver a community power vision for public services, society and the wider economy. He has worked previously as Head of Economics at the Trades Union Congress and Director of the Action and Research Centre for the Royal Society for the Arts. He has researched and written extensively throughout his career and he holds a PhD from Sheffield University.

Lydia Dlaboha, Deputy CEO, HQN

Lydia joined HQN in 2007 and is currently the Deputy CEO. Her background is in housing management – both general needs and supported. She has worked extensively as a consultant on a wide variety of performance improvement projects. In her current role, Lydia has responsibility for overseeing all of HQN’s work and for quality assurance in particular. She spends the majority of her time talking to HQN members to make sure that our service meets their needs, and on consultancy-related work.

Damian Roche, Director, HQN

Damian began his career working in homelessness and housing advice before moving into housing management. He has over 20 years’ experience at senior level in a variety of housing organisations, including local authorities and housing associations. For much of the last decade, Damian was Director of Customer Experience at Accent, with responsibility for customer facing services, including tenancy and estates management, leasehold services and repairs and maintenance, to over 4700 homes.

Wayne Hughes, HQN Associate, HQN

Wayne Hughes is an experienced consultant who has worked at a senior level within private and public sector housing related organisations for the past 40 years. He has authored several articles on asset management related activities and has sat on several advisory bodies for the social housing sector, including sitting on the panel which developed the widely used Disrepair Pre-action Protocol. He was also part of the team which established the English House Condition Survey (now called the English Housing Survey).

Darren McGarvey, Political Activist