This year’s Rent Compliance Hub conference provides one of the first opportunities for the sector to look at the implications of the settlement and to sense check their approach to rent setting for 2026/27 and beyond.

The sector has the 10-year rent settlement it had been arguing for, and the government is consulting on rent convergence to help make up for the unwarranted differences in rents that remain.

The decision on how rent convergence can be applied will be announced at the Autumn Budget.

However, registered providers must ensure their housing and landlord services deliver fair and equitable outcomes for everyone. Although we have the ability to increase rents, with the cost of living still badly impacting on tenants, social housing providers also need to consider the effect on tenants in all their diversity and strike the right balance.

We will explore whether decisions, information and communications about rent setting are meeting the RSH’s Transparency, Influence and Accountability Standard and how organisations should be reporting performance and risk to their governing bodies.

Sector experts will share what they are doing to try to prevent future problems and the learning from previous non-compliance.

Chaired by Emma Turay, Assistant Director of Regulation and Policy at Notting Hill Genesis, our popular virtual conference will cover:

• What the 10-year rent settlement means for housing associations and councils across the country
• How best to implement rent convergence and avoid the potential pitfalls in terms of compliance with the rent standard
• Legal updates – looking to the future and learning from past mistakes, notifications and judgements
• The implications of the Renters’ Rights Bill
• The requirements of the Transparency, Influence and Accountability Standard in relation to rent setting
• Learning from RSH judgements on the Rent Standard.

Full speaker line-up to be announced shortly.

Essential for:

• Executive directors and board members
• Finance, risk assurance and rent compliance teams
• Rent setting/review panels
• Income management and/or housing management teams
• Data governance teams.

Emma Turay, Assistant Director of Regulation and Policy, Notting Hill Genesis

Emma works at Notting Hill Genesis ensuring that the organisation is robust in terms of regulatory and legislative requirements for the Rent & Consumer Standards and delivering clear policies and procedures and working with internal colleagues to ensure they are clear, meet the legislative requirements and have a positive impact on NHG’s customers.  Of equal importance, she oversees professional competency and onboarding for new operational colleagues to ensure they are well equipped to do their roles confidently.

In previous roles, Emma has led on the development of automated bespoke systems for Rents and Service Charges, designed to provide a platform to complete work compliantly, increase data integrity and provide insights for future decision making as well as implementing data structures ad reporting. Emma has nearly 20 years’ experience in the sector, has led on implementing an annual rent compliance conference and sector publications of the Complying with the Rent Standard.

Steve Partridge, Director, Savills

Steve is a national expert in housing finance with over 25 years’ experience in public and private sectors in business planning, Investment appraisal, financing and development of new homes.

Steve specialises in working with housing providers to build their financial capacity, to assess options for, and then implement the delivery of, new and better housing through all routes including: “traditional” public and private finance, new housing companies and joint ventures, and innovative ways to bring new sources of private finance into affordable housing. His high profile roles have included: finance manager of £220m turnover landlord; senior consultant to hundreds of local authorities and housing associations; government adviser with key role in conceiving, promoting and then delivering council housing finance reform in England and Wales; private sector CFO raising £30m Investment via new models for equity funding and bank lending into affordable housing.

Samantha Shimmon, Assistant Director: Housing and Health, Cambridge City Council

Samantha (Sam) Shimmon is Assistant Director for Housing and Homelessness at Cambridge City Council. Sam is accountable for managing council housing, preventing and reducing homelessness and rough sleeping and enabling safer communities, including curating the ecosystem of local organisations that enable better housing outcomes.

Sam has over 20 years of experience in the housing sector, working for both private registered providers as well as local authorities. She has a wealth of housing management experience, as well as transformation projects in other areas such as repairs and maintenance, asset management and digital.

Sam has experience of working with the social housing regulator on regulatory issues at both Cambridge City Council and her former employer East Suffolk council, relating to the rent and consumer standards. Sam has recently led on Cambridge City Council’s regulatory inspection achieving a C2 compliant grading.

Anna Furlong, Assistant Director for Policy, Strategy and Impact, RSH

Anna’s career has always been in the housing sector, working across both the local authority and housing association sector. In her role at the Regulator of Social Housing, Anna is responsible for the design of RSH’s regulatory standards. Her role involves engaging with MHCLG and other stakeholders’ policy areas which affect the social housing sector and its regulation in England.

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.  His hands-on approach sees Alistair leading on all HQN’s mock inspection exercises 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.

Samantha Grix, Partner, Devonshires

Samantha is a Partner in the Housing Management and Property Litigation team at Devonshires and has worked in the sector for almost 15 years. She was called to the Bar before cross qualifying as a solicitor and has worked at Devonshires throughout her career.

Samantha deals with all areas of housing management and specialises in rent regulation and the consumer standards. She regularly advises clients on compliance and forms part of their team when an issue is discovered to the point of resolution.

10:30am Welcome and introductions

• Emma Turay, Assistant Director of Regulation and Policy, Notting Hill Genesis

10:40am Long term rent policy and convergence

• Steve Partridge, Director, Savills

Steve Partridge will take us through the implications of the government’s long term social housing rent policy.  He will share his thoughts on the issues the settlement doesn’t address and how rent convergence is likely to work in both the housing association and council sector.

11:10am Practical lessons from non-compliance

• Samantha Shimmon, Assistant Director: Housing and Health, Cambridge City Council

Samantha Shimmon shares a candid case study from Cambridge: how historic rent-setting errors were uncovered and framed, what went wrong and the scale of impact, and the practical fixes – re-baselining rents, processing refunds, working with DWP/HB/UC and clear resident communications. She will set out the governance and assurance changes that have stuck and offer forward-looking suggestions so others can strengthen controls before inspection.

11:50am Break

12:05pm The Rent Standard and sector risks

• Anna Furlong, Assistant Director for Policy, Strategy and Impact, RSH

Anna Furlong will talk about the issues that the Regulator is seeing in connection with non-compliance with the Rent Standard.  She will highlight the common pitfalls, provide advice on when to self-refer and discuss the kinds of evidence and assurance the RSH will look for during inspection, especially in light of the return of rent convergence.

12:35pm Preventing problems – rent audits

• Emma Turay, Assistant Director of Regulation and Policy, Notting Hill Genesis

Emma Turay will talk about the mechanics of a full rents audit – the benefit of doing it, what it entails and the challenges they found.  She will share the lessons learned and give her top tips for others about to go through the process.

1:05pm Lunch

2:00pm Governing rents

• Alistair McIntosh, Chief Executive, HQN

Alistair McIntosh, CEO of HQN will focus on what governing bodies and sector leaders need to do to ensure good governance on rent setting and rent compliance.  He will share his thoughts on why this area is so critical for boards, councillors and executive teams and what providers need to watch out for in the future.

2:30pm Regulatory and legal updates

• Samantha Grix, Partner, Devonshires

Samantha Grix will provide a summary of issues referred to Devonshires by clients on the rent standard as well as recent judgements to note.  She will highlight particular issues to be aware of for shared owners as well as summarising the new requirements of the Renters Rights Bill.

3:00pm Questions and answers

• Emma Turay, Assistant Director of Regulation and Policy, Notting Hill Genesis

3:30pm Close

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.