Alistair McIntosh

Founder and Chief Executive

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

Since its inception, HQN has built up a membership of more than 1,000 housing associations, local authorities and ALMOs across its networks.

Lydia Dlaboha

Deputy CEO

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

HQN Director

Damian’s role as a HQN Director offers support to our networks and consultancy services. He is an experienced senior leader with a proven track record of developing and delivering excellent operational and customer services, and consultancy and advisory support, within the social housing sector that is tailored to the needs of diverse communities. He has over 30 years’ experience in planning, developing, and delivering stretching strategic objectives, to continually improve customer service and deliver excellence. With excellent communication, leadership and interpersonal skills, he has experience across multi-sited organisations with complex structures. In his most recent operational position, he was responsible for the delivery of services to 4,700 households, including customer engagement, repairs and maintenance, tenancy management and sustainability: and income management.

Sarah Preston

Head of Finance

Sarah joined HQN in 2014 and is responsible for the company’s finances, running a small team from the York office. After initially pursuing a career in logistics, Sarah retrained as an accountant and completed AAT and CIMA qualifications. Before joining HQN, she worked as a Management Accountant across a range of sectors including logistics, higher education and manufacturing.

Anna Pattison

Head of Consultancy and Training

Anna joined HQN in 2000 and now heads up the consultancy and training areas of the business. Her role is to ensure we have an exciting training schedule in place, that all enquiries are dealt with as soon as possible and that the consultancy projects run smoothly and on schedule.

Lewis Kinch

Head of Networks

Lewis is a co-creation and engagement specialist driven by a belief that the people closest to challenges hold the answers to solving them. With 15 years’ experience across housing and community work, he champions power-sharing and genuine partnership between organisations and the communities they serve.

Lewis has led the development of innovative frameworks and strategies that give residents meaningful influence in decision-making, always centring seldom-heard voices and challenging traditional top-down approaches.

He combines systems thinking with participatory design methodologies to tackle complex challenges, and is committed to embedding person-centred cultures where residents, staff and stakeholders work as equals.

Jon Land

Head of Content

Jon joined HQN in October 2015 after five years as editor of 24housing magazine. A journalist by profession, he started his career at the Hereford Times before joining allpay in 2005 to establish the 24dash.com news website and 24housing magazine. At HQN, Jon leads on business development and external relations. He is also responsible for the events programme.

Charlie Maunder

Head of Operations

Charlie joined HQN in early 2021 as head of business development. His background is in operations, project management, hospitality and event management. With over 20 years’ experience in senior management roles, he has built a strong reputation for introducing business improvement strategies that expand operations and drive exceptional growth in competitive markets. As part of the HQN team he is working on projects and introducing new technologies that will improve the customer experience and how we communicate with our members. This will also facilitate networking with each other and the ease with which they can access all the latest news and resources from the sector.

Richard Hawley

Training Manager

With over 15 years of Learning and Development experience, Richard has a comprehensive knowledge of conducting training needs analysis and finding courses designed for organisations looking at developing their learning solutions for the benefit of the company and their staff.

At HQN he works closely with the Head of Training to develop an exciting range of courses dedicated to the Housing Sector. As a trained trainer, he also works closely with all our trainers to ensure they’re supported and that the courses we deliver are covering a wide range of learning styles in this ever-changing world.

Richard is dedicated to bringing learning to everyone so they can improve in their role and give themselves the best career possible, no matter what their journey was before they speak with us.

Emma-Louise Dawes

Operations Manager

Emma-Louise is an experienced operations professional with a background in logistics, project coordination and account management. She brings a structured and practical approach to managing complex processes, ensuring systems run smoothly and consistently to support both colleagues and members.

Throughout her career, she has led end-to-end delivery across national and international operations, managed stakeholder relationships and produced performance reporting to drive continuous improvement. She has a solutions-focused mindset, particularly in fast paced environments.

At HQN, Emma-Louise plays a key role in strengthening internal processes, improving operational efficiency and supporting a high quality experience for members, associates and partners.

Caoimhe McEvoy

Events Manager

Caoimhe joined HQN in 2025 and is responsible for delivering the organisation’s programme of events and masterclasses for housing professionals. She manages the full event lifecycle – working alongside colleagues to ensure relevant topics, updates and session content is available for our members. Liaising with speakers and partners, coordinating event logistics, and working hard to ensure that every event runs smoothly from first booking through to the final Q&A.

A key part of Caoimhe’s role is looking after the delegate and speaker experience. She focuses on clear, warm communication, creating a professional and inclusive atmosphere, and making sure speakers feel well supported and delegates leave with practical insight they can take back to their organisations.

Suzy Histon

Member Engagement Manager

Suzy worked in social housing for seven years before bringing her sector experience to HQN in 2015 as a key part of the consultancy team. In 2018, she joined the networks team, where she now works as an account manager, supporting members in accessing the wide range of benefits available through HQN.

She also brings strong customer-focused experience from the further education and recruitment sectors to ensure our members receive a first-class service. We can always rely on Suzy to be proactive, knowledgeable and efficient with great attention to detail, demonstrated by our loyal customer base.

Bobbie Hough

Housing Management Network

Bobbie is one of social housing’s most respected communications professionals and he is an expert in strategic planning and crisis communications. He has worked with some of the UK’s most recognised brands helping them to retell their stories through high profile media campaigns, internal messaging and managing crisis situations.

Bobbie is also our Estate Services Hub lead.

Dave Simmons

Complaints Hub

Dave Simmons currently works as a Dispute Resolution Improvement Manager for a large housing association.

He is an experienced trainer in complaints handling in the housing sector covering a wide range of subject areas. He was formerly Sector Development Lead at the Housing Ombudsman Service where he was responsible for the writing and delivery of training workshops, webinars and forums to different audiences including residents, landlords and Boards. Dave also led on the project to produce the Ombudsman’s first ‘Complaint Handling Code’ which sets out best practice complaint handling for the sector.

Outside of his full-time roles, Dave’s training experience extends to his work as an associate for Tpas (tenant engagement experts). He is also an experienced accredited mediator and has mediated on a wide range of disputes including family, community and workplace. As well as his private mediation work, he volunteers for a community mediation charity in Croydon where he is a Board Trustee.

Debbie Larner

Leadership and Organisational Development Hub

Debbie Larner is an experienced, qualified and dedicated housing professional with over 30 years of experience working in the housing sector – both in frontline roles and for housing’s professional body, the Chartered Institute of Housing (CIH). She has expertise in many areas including housing management, resident involvement, compliance and regulation and professionalism. She also teaches the CIH level four and level five housing qualification. She is an experienced public speaker, chair, trainer and tutor and has authored a number of housing publications, blogs and HQN toolkits.

Emma Lindley

Strategic Network

Emma is a housing professional with more than 10 years’ experience working in a variety of roles, including frontline housing management, resident involvement, policy development and managing properties for PRS landlords.

She is happiest when exploring interesting ideas with interesting people. She currently works in strategic housing for a local authority, leading on identifying new solutions to old problems, such as homelessness, domestic abuse and fuel poverty.

Emma completed a BSc in Housing at De Montfort University in 2014. She Chairs the Chartered Institute of Housing East Midlands Regional Board and is a Lead Associate of HQN’s Strategic Network.

Emma Turay

Rent Compliance Hub

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.

Helen Muir

Leasehold Network

Helen Muir has extensive experience in the housing sector having worked in senior roles for two large housing groups, where her responsibilities included sales programme delivery and the management of over 5,000 shared ownership/leasehold homes, as well as leading on anti-money laundering process and procedure.

Helen has worked as a trainer and consultant since 2012 specialising in affordable home ownership, leasehold management, Right to Buy and anti-money laundering. She has provided interim management and strategic and operational support to a number of registered providers, local authorities and private sector companies and is HQN’s lead on anti-money laundering.

Ian Parker

Housing Finance Network

Ian Parker is a qualified accountant and he has an extensive background in local government and the social housing sector. During his career, he has held senior positions in local government and served as the Finance Director for four registered providers. For the past 14 years, Ian has worked as a consultant, during which time he has:

• Developed HQN’s value for money (VfM) metric model
• Provided advice on the sector’s VfM agenda
• Conducted over 40 mock in-depth assessments (IDAs)
• Developed HQN’s stress testing model
• Provided rent consultancy advice to clients
• Provided technical advice to the 100+ members of HQN’s Housing Finance Network.

Jackie Dickins

Leasehold Network

Jackie Dickins has been an HQN Associate since 2001 and is a lead consultant for HQN’s Leasehold Network. Prior to this she held positions at a London borough and two large housing associations based in London, where she was responsible for leasehold management and promoting work in the field of low-cost home ownership initiatives. Jackie undertakes many of HQN’s service reviews and service improvement work on leaseholder and home ownership. She has also worked in interim positions with a number of local authorities, arm’s length management organisations and housing associations as head of home ownership/home ownership manager.

Jackie also runs pre-exam workshops at associate and member level for the Institute of Residential Property Managers (IRPM) and is delivering training for apprentices seeking associate membership of the IRPM.

Jan Taranczuk

Health and Safety Network

Jan is an experienced housing professional, with more than 50 years’ experience spanning local authorities, housing associations, and the private sector. He is now working with a group of experienced housing and technical professionals to assist housing organisations improve their services.

Jane Atherton

Leadership and Organisational Development Hub

Jane Atherton is an experienced Organisational Development (OD) professional. A Chartered Fellow of the CIPD, she has a proven track record in senior roles delivering strategic OD and HR. She is passionate about all things employee engagement and is proud to have supported businesses to achieve top spots in The Sunday Times Best 100 Companies to Work For, along with National Training Awards and Investors in People.

She became an independent consultant in 2018, runs her own business called Hooga Consulting, and is an associate of HQN.

She is also a board member for Aspire Housing.

Jane Eyles

Residents’ Network

Jane is an HQN Associate and has been a social housing resident, board member and consultant specialising in resident engagement since 1990. This means she is able to bring multiple perspectives into housing. She has held senior positions such as Head of Housing for Brighton Housing Trust, Head of Engagement for LB Camden, Genesis and Hexagon and Tpas SE Regional Manager as well as 20 years consultancy including the development of resident led scrutiny.

John Goodwin

Complaints Hub

John Goodwin is a housing trainer and consultant, with extensive experience in the social housing sector, particularly in complaint-handling, resident involvement and governance.

John was Compliance and Systemic Lead at the Housing Ombudsman Service until 2022, responsible for addressing systemic failings by landlords. He was involved in drafting the Ombudsman’s first ‘Complaint Handling Code’ and for delivering training to landlords, residents and others to improve complaint-handling and learning from complaints across the sector.

Prior to joining the Ombudsman, John spent ten years with the Audit Commission’s Housing Inspectorate – inspecting a range of housing organisations and services.

John previously worked for Shelter in several roles, including Head of Legal Services and Editor of ROOF magazine. He began his housing career in homelessness, housing advice and resettlement with a London borough.

John has written and edited a number of publications including: ‘Built to Last’ (a history of British housing policy).

John is also an accredited mediator and a trustee and past chair of a social care charity.

Kevin Bentley

Asset Management Network

Kevin has worked in social housing in both the local government and housing association sectors for over 30 years, specialising in housing maintenance and stock investment issues.

Kevin is HQN’s lead asset management consultant. He developed the HQN repairs and maintenance accreditation certification system and is now the lead assessor for our accreditations. He is also our expert on value for money in asset management and procurement and has run numerous seminars and workshops on this. He provides regular bespoke training for organisations on procurement, value for money and contract management.

Mike Victory-Rowe

Asset Management Network

Mike is a chartered building surveyor with more than 30 years’ experience in property asset management and social housing. He works with a range of clients and partners to deliver innovative asset management solutions to the sector and has advised numerous social housing providers on strategic asset management and investment, active asset management solutions, business intelligence and performance, property option appraisals and disposals and health and safety compliance.

Rob Gershon

Residents’ Network

Rob is a social housing tenant and activist. Rob is a full-time carer. Following the Welfare Reform Act of 2012, wherein policy dictated Rob and his wife had a spare room for which they would be financially penalised, Rob began blogging about the reforms – then broader housing issues and policy.

Since then, Rob has been involved in the Social Housing Under Threat (SHOUT) campaign for social housing, has previously worked as the lead associate for HQN’s Residents’ Network, and was active with the group of tenants trying to design a ‘voice for tenants’ alongside the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, before ministerial inactivity and resistance brought an end to the endeavour.

Rob was one of the sixteen commissioners on Shelter’s “Vision For Social Housing” commission, a round look at what needs to change in the provision and regulation of social housing after the Grenfell Tower Fire. This led to further quiet work assisting Grenfell United and Shelter the housing ministry advice to try and drive reform through the social housing regulation bill.

Rob is also part of the advisory group working with Joseph Rowntree Foundation’s project alongside the Nationwide Foundation and the Frameworks Institute to look at ways of redefining how people talk about housing and social housing, in an attempt to inform public debate and drive policy change in an area which has arguably not produced the number of social rented homes the country needs.

Roger Jarman

Strategic Network

Roger Jarman is a long-standing HQN associate. He provides consultancy services, leads training programmes and writes on housing regulation and other matters. He is the author of HQN’s toolkit on the new regulatory framework for social housing.

Apart from his consultancy work, Roger runs a small housing charity in West London. In September 2024, he was appointed Chair of the Independent Housing Board for the London Borough of Ealing. He has held non-executive positions in three housing providers.

He has worked in senior positions in both housing associations and local authorities. From 1991 to 1999, he was Head of Housing Management at the Housing Corporation and from 1999 to 2011, he was Head of Housing at the Audit Commission, overseeing the 1,400 housing inspections undertaken by the commission during that period. He was a member of the team that produced the Cave Review of social housing regulation in 2007.

Sue Beasor

Rent Income Excellence Network

Sue Beasor has worked in benefits for several years. She has worked at a senior level in a number of local authorities and has spent more than 25 years working closely with social housing providers.

Sue is an HQN associate and experienced trainer and consultant whose work includes delivering benefits and management training for local authority benefits services and social landlords, managing the implementation of legislation and organisational changes and analysing the effects of welfare reforms, particularly how they impact on the social housing sector.

Sue Phillips

Leasehold Network

Sue established a sector initiatice in 2021, focusing on representing the perspectives

Sue launched Shared Ownership Resources, in 2021, to champion the interests of shared owners and households considering shared ownership. The project publishes case studies, collaborates with housing, legal and financial experts to offer specialist information and advice; and campaigns for improved transparency and better outcomes and against mis-selling and other poor practices in the sector.

She has spoken at housing and lender events including the CIH / NHF Housing Community Summit 2025 and the British New Homes Mortgage Senate 2022. In May 2023, she published Shared Ownership: The Consumer Perspective.
Sue is a qualified chartered accountant (retired), writer and former shared owner.

Tim Brown

Strategic Network

Tim is an HQN associate and an independent consultant. He specialises in housing, planning and local government and focuses on social housing allocations, homelessness, affordable housing provision and safeguarding. He has worked on projects for many councils and housing associations as well as for government departments.

He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, a Member of the Regional Studies Association and a Corporate Member of the Chartered Institute of Housing. He was previously chairperson of the Homes Board of East Midlands Housing Group (EMHG) and an Honorary Research Associate at De Montfort University on housing and local government.

Tim Horsley

Housing Management Network

Tim Horsley spent over 25 years in local government, housing management and community safety in central London, the West Midlands and the North West. He is an associate consultant who is experienced in writing strategies, policies and procedures, carrying out service reviews, and health checks. Specialist areas include anti-social behaviour and tenancy management, community safety and estate management, homelessness services, hostel management, temporary accommodation and leasing schemes and allocations and lettings. Tim has also written several briefings and toolkits on managing ASB, homelessness, neighbourhood management and the practical aspects of housing law as well as developing and delivering training on ASB policies and procedures.

Wayne Hughes

Asset Management Network

Wayne is HQN’s specialist in asset management, repairs and maintenance. He has experience as a consultant and director of property and building services which spans two decades. As well as many years of working as a consultant in this area he also has hands on practical experience of delivering and overseeing the repairs and maintenance service, having worked for several councils and associations.

Adrian Joliffe

Adrian Jolliffe has considerable knowledge and experience in all aspects of corporate borrowing and finance, particularly in relation to registered providers of social housing and charities. He has helped set up registered providers and charities from scratch and also helped dozens of affordable housing providers borrow millions to invest in social housing. In the past he has also undertaken interim treasury director roles in very complex housing groups with loan portfolios over £1bn.

Prior to setting up 2TIX LTD, Adrian was a director of two FCA authorised firms, and before that had 20 years’ experience in financial services, working at a senior level in Barclays Bank and Nationwide Building Society.

Andy Redfearn

Andy Redfearn is passionate about turning complexity into clarity — whether it’s uniting a team around a shared vision, transforming a struggling product into a market leader, or helping others perform at their very best. His mission is to deliver clear results through empowering people and driving organisations to thrive.

Andy’s career has taken him from the fast-paced world of ad tech to the highly secure and demanding realm of national security and law enforcement. With over twelve years’ experience leading high-performing teams and launching cutting-edge products, he has built a reputation for aligning strategy, technology, and people to deliver impact at scale.

As Product Leader, Andy led a multi-disciplinary team developing advanced AI data intelligence solutions for government and national security clients. Before that, he was Head of Product and Success, where he guided the company through a major transformation that restored growth and cemented its position as a UK market leader.

Alongside his professional work, Andy serves as Team Leader and Director of the Holme Valley Mountain Rescue Team, coordinating life-saving search and rescue missions across Yorkshire.

Driven, collaborative, and calm under pressure, Andy brings a blend of strategic thinking, empathy, and real-world leadership to every challenge — whether in the boardroom or on the mountainside.

Bob Heaney

Bob Heaney is an experienced housing professional, business trainer, and energy consultant, with a specialist focus on income recovery, rent collection, and tenant engagement in complex cases.

With over a decade of frontline experience, Bob has worked directly with tenants facing high-level arrears, non-engagement, and financial crisis – supporting sustainable payment plans while also managing litigation and enforcement where necessary. His approach is rooted in the belief that well-supported tenants, clear communication, and practical negotiation lead to better outcomes for both landlords and residents.

Bob grew up in social housing in Glasgow’s East End, and combines lived experience with professional insight drawn from years of housing practice, behavioural training, and business consultancy. This gives him a rare ability to connect with housing teams and tenants alike, translating complex challenges into workable strategies.

His training style is straight-talking, motivational, and grounded in reality. Drawing on principles from behavioural science, negotiation frameworks, and motivational interviewing, Bob helps income teams improve performance under pressure – whether managing current tenancies, recovering historic arrears, reducing evictions, or navigating welfare reforms as well as undertaking court action and evictions.

Bob has supported housing providers through the uncertainty of the pandemic and the shifting landscape of legislation, helping teams stay focused on what works. He has delivered workshops for local authorities, housing associations, and private sector organisations, equipping staff to have more positive conversations about rent, manage arrears assertively and empathetically, and reduce the need for court action.

He is a member of the Chartered Institute of Housing and believes passionately in delivering social housing services with a business brain and a social heart.

Brian Claydon

Brian is a Chartered Member of IOSH (CMIOSH) and a highly respected Health and Safety professional with a career spanning multiple industries, including construction, social housing, and tourism, after managing Health and Safety within various organisations. Since 2018 Brian’s focus has been on accredited Health and Safety Training and consultancy, bringing with him a wealth of practical experience and a clear vision: to make Health and Safety more accessible, engaging, and impactful for businesses of all sizes.

With a hands-on, down-to-earth approach, Brian has earned a reputation for delivering relevant, practical, and accredited training that resonates with real-world challenges. His consultancy work is built around a deep understanding of current UK Health and Safety legislation, helping clients not only meet their legal obligations but also create safer, more productive working environments.

What truly sets Brian apart is his engaging and relatable delivery style. Whether he’s working with frontline staff or senior management teams, his sessions are designed to be interactive, informative, and tailored to the needs of the audience. His goal is simple: to empower people with the knowledge, confidence, and competence to work safely.

Driven by a genuine passion for improving workplace safety, Brian is committed to upholding the highest standards of training, advice, and support. His clients value not only his expertise but also his ongoing dedication to their Health and Safety success.

Caroline Bradley

Caroline Bradley started out making community programmes for BBC local radio before working in press and communications for national charities for over 15 years. She’s a strong believer in straightforward communication and now specialises in training and advising organisations on how to explain who they are, what they do and why it matters. Caroline always delivers training that is informative, enjoyable and practical.

Carrie Kus

Carrie Kus is an experienced housing, lettings and property training specialist with a strong background across the charity, private rented, social housing and property investment sectors. Carrie spent seven years as a Senior Trainer at Shelter, the homelessness charity, where she managed the training needs of both new and existing helpline housing advisers. Her work supported advisers in delivering high-quality housing guidance to people facing homelessness and housing insecurity.

In 2010, Carrie founded Clarity Estates, a lettings agency operating in Sheffield and Chesterfield. She successfully led the agency for over a decade before its sale in 2022 to a local housing charity. Alongside this, Carrie has been a property investor for many years, bringing practical, hands-on experience of the rental market.

Carrie has also held several non-executive and leadership roles. She served for five years as a Non-Executive Director of the Residential Landlords Association before its merger with the National Landlords Association to form the NRLA. She also spent three years as a Non-Executive Director for the trading arm of Nomad, a Sheffield charity providing housing for young people, and was Training Director for Property Training Solutions, a subsidiary of Allied Surveyors created to deliver specialist training for property surveyors and professionals.

Carrie brings together deep knowledge of the housing, lettings, property investment and social housing sectors, alongside practical experience and a long-standing commitment to improving standards across housing and lettings.

Clive Eccleston

Clive Eccleston is a Board member at Walsall Housing Group. In the last 5 years Clive has been involved in the raising and refinancing of over £1bn of finance.

Since 1989 Clive has been involved in the social housing arena. Initially, as a lender and since 1999 as adviser.

Clive’s experience in Treasury, Finance and Business Planning is far reaching; ranging from Training, Mentoring, treasury strategies and policies, business planning (including HousingBrixx), options and capacity reviews, through to fund raising (both capital market and traditional bank).

Danny McGowan

Danny McGowan BSc, MSc has been involved in supporting people with substance misuse, mental health and other complex needs for over 20 years. He has developed experience in many specialist areas, such as working with hoarders and those with a dual diagnosis and has delivered training in techniques such as motivational interviewing and CBT. He has been delivering training for the housing sector for over a decade and has many years’ experience of developing client/customer involvement and peer mentoring schemes.

Danny uses a combination of his years of experience, current good practice guidelines and research evidence to deliver the topics he trains. He uses a holistic interactive training style that provides delegates with real skills and information, which they are then able to apply back in the workplace and beyond. He has delivered training and provided consultancy to numerous organisations during his career. Notable clients include the Department of Health, Department for Work and Pensions and the Home Office as well as housing organisations across the UK.

Dave Simmons

Dave Simmons currently works as a Dispute Resolution Improvement Manager for a large housing association.

He is an experienced trainer in complaints handling in the housing sector covering a wide range of subject areas. He was formerly Sector Development Lead at the Housing Ombudsman Service where he was responsible for the writing and delivery of training workshops, webinars and forums to different audiences including residents, landlords and Boards. Dave also led on the project to produce the Ombudsman’s first ‘Complaint Handling Code’ which sets out best practice complaint handling for the sector.

Outside of his full-time roles, Dave’s training experience extends to his work as an associate for Tpas (tenant engagement experts). He is also an experienced accredited mediator and has mediated on a wide range of disputes including family, community and workplace. As well as his private mediation work, he volunteers for a community mediation charity in Croydon where he is a Board Trustee.

Debbie Larner

Debbie Larner is an experienced, qualified and dedicated housing professional with over 30 years of experience working in the housing sector – both in frontline roles and for housing’s professional body, the Chartered Institute of Housing (CIH). She has expertise in many areas including housing management, resident involvement, compliance and regulation and professionalism. She also teaches the CIH level four and level five housing qualification. She is an experienced public speaker, chair, trainer and tutor and has authored a number of housing publications, blogs and HQN toolkits.

Emma Foxall

Emma worked for the Housing Ombudsman for 20 years in a variety of roles including Director of Dispute Resolution and Deputy Ombudsman.  She was responsible for setting up the Quality, Engagement and Development Directorate and co-authored the Complaint Handling Code.

She worked at Shelter for four years providing training and consultancy for housing advice agencies and Citizens Advice. She also worked for Camden Council in the Housing Legal Team and then later in the Customer Services and Engagement Team, overseeing compliance with Ombudsman decisions.

Emma is a Solicitor with many years of experience providing training to landlords in housing law and complaint handling best practice.  She is also an accredited mediator and a lay panel member for fitness to practice panels dealing with complaints about health care professionals and nurses.

Gavin Hutchinson

Gavin is a veteran trainer with 22 years of experience planning, implementing and delivering training for HM Prison Service, Police Forces and Local Authorities. He is passionate and highly effective with outstanding success in delivering training over a variety of disciplines and fields.

He has a deep knowledge of behavioural change, motivational training and development across public and private sectors and thoroughly enjoys seeing the effect of his training on the participants. Gavin uses humour to allow participants to absorb the learning and his sessions are great fun.

Helen Muir

Helen Muir has extensive experience in the housing sector having worked in senior roles for two large housing groups, where her responsibilities included sales programme delivery and the management of over 5,000 shared ownership/leasehold homes, as well as leading on anti-money laundering process and procedure.

Helen has worked as a trainer and consultant since 2012 specialising in affordable home ownership, leasehold management, Right to Buy and anti-money laundering. She has provided interim management and strategic and operational support to a number of registered providers, local authorities and private sector companies and is HQN’s lead on anti-money laundering.

Humera Raja

Humera is a qualified solicitor who completed her LLB and Legal Practice Course (LPC) before qualifying in 2012. She has over seven years of legal practice experience as a defendant legal costs solicitor, negotiator and advocate, representing both government and private sector clients. Her work has included clinical negligence litigation, dispute resolution, advocacy and case management.

Since joining the University of Law as a Lecturer in 2020, Humera has developed a successful career in higher education. She completed her Postgraduate Certificate in Higher Education (PGCHE) in 2023, became a Fellow of Advance HE in 2024, and was appointed Senior Lecturer in 2026.

Drawing on her combined expertise in law, housing-related matters, advocacy and education, Humera delivers engaging, practical and interactive training. Her learner-centred approach encourages discussion, reflection and the application of learning to real workplace situations, ensuring delegates leave with practical tools they can implement immediately.

Ian Parker

Ian Parker is a qualified accountant and he has an extensive background in local government and the social housing sector. During his career, he has held senior positions in local government and served as the Finance Director for four registered providers. For the past 14 years, Ian has worked as a consultant, during which time he has:

• Developed HQN’s value for money (VfM) metric model
• Provided advice on the sector’s VfM agenda
• Conducted over 40 mock in-depth assessments (IDAs)
• Developed HQN’s stress testing model
• Provided rent consultancy advice to clients
• Provided technical advice to the 100+ members of HQN’s Housing Finance Network.

Jackie Dickins

Jackie Dickins has been an HQN Associate since 2001 and is a lead consultant for HQN’s Leasehold Network. Prior to this she held positions at a London borough and two large housing associations based in London, where she was responsible for leasehold management and promoting work in the field of low-cost home ownership initiatives. Jackie undertakes many of HQN’s service reviews and service improvement work on leaseholder and home ownership. She has also worked in interim positions with a number of local authorities, arm’s length management organisations and housing associations as head of home ownership/home ownership manager.

Jackie also runs pre-exam workshops at associate and member level for the Institute of Residential Property Managers (IRPM) and is delivering training for apprentices seeking associate membership of the IRPM.

Jane Atherton

Jane Atherton is an experienced Organisational Development (OD) professional. A Chartered Fellow of the CIPD, she has a proven track record in senior roles delivering strategic OD and HR. She is passionate about all things employee engagement and is proud to have supported businesses to achieve top spots in The Sunday Times Best 100 Companies to Work For, along with National Training Awards and Investors in People.

She became an independent consultant in 2018, runs her own business called Hooga Consulting, and is an associate of HQN.

She is also a board member for Aspire Housing.

Jo Faller-Pope

Jo is passionate about helping people build confidence, strengthen relationships and lead with authenticity. Whether supporting someone to communicate more effectively, navigate challenging conversations or develop their leadership style, Jo’s focus is always on helping people become the best version of themselves.

Her career spans leadership roles across digital and marketing agencies, where she predominantly worked in client services; leading high-performing teams and working on customer centric projects for globally recognised clients from Microsoft to Brompton Bikes. Throughout her career, Jo has remained people-focused, building strong teams, nurturing client relationships and creating environments where people can thrive.

Now working with leaders, teams and customer-facing professionals, Jo delivers engaging and practical learning experiences to help people have a positive influence.

John Goodwin

John Goodwin is a housing trainer and consultant, with extensive experience in the social housing sector, particularly in complaint-handling, resident involvement and governance.

John was Compliance and Systemic Lead at the Housing Ombudsman Service until 2022, responsible for addressing systemic failings by landlords. He was involved in drafting the Ombudsman’s first ‘Complaint Handling Code’ and for delivering training to landlords, residents and others to improve complaint-handling and learning from complaints across the sector.

Prior to joining the Ombudsman, John spent ten years with the Audit Commission’s Housing Inspectorate – inspecting a range of housing organisations and services.

John previously worked for Shelter in several roles, including Head of Legal Services and Editor of ROOF magazine. He began his housing career in homelessness, housing advice and resettlement with a London borough.

John has written and edited a number of publications including: ‘Built to Last’ (a history of British housing policy).

John is also an accredited mediator and a trustee and past chair of a social care charity.

Kevin Bentley

Kevin has worked in social housing in both the local government and housing association sectors for over 30 years, specialising in housing maintenance and stock investment issues.

Kevin is HQN’s lead asset management consultant. He developed the HQN repairs and maintenance accreditation certification system and is now the lead assessor for our accreditations. He is also our expert on value for money in asset management and procurement and has run numerous seminars and workshops on this. He provides regular bespoke training for organisations on procurement, value for money and contract management.

Larry Russen

Larry is a Chartered Building Surveyor, Chartered Building Engineer and Party Wall Surveyor. With more than 40 years’ experience, Larry is a member of the RICS, Allied Surveyors & Valuers and is an trainer with the SAVA Assessment Centre in Milton Keynes. Having served as an expert witness in numerous cases, including at the High Court, and authored articles and books, Larry regularly teaches and trains qualified and trainee surveyors to degree level and founded Russen & Turner in 1981. Larry still works full time as a consultant and when not spending time sailing on the water with his beautiful children, can be found cycling, running or playing 5-a-side football. He recently completed studying for a Masters Degree in German Language, History and Culture at University College London.

Laura Bouttell

Laura is passionate about inspiring people, whether it’s to deal with that challenging customer differently, to go out for that first run or to take that creative writing course. Her mission in life is to empower people to become their best.

Laura is an ex-police officer, who has three degrees. She is a published academic author and editor.

As a result of her time policing in Chapeltown, her own business and her time at Oxford, Laura has seen the gritty side of life as well as the ivory towers and uses her experiences in these diverse fields to help you achieve your dreams.

Now Laura works with all levels of Leaders in Business to help them get the best out of themselves and those around them. She has worked with Leaders from the Co-op, Team Leaders from Asda, as well as many SMEs and owner-managed businesses that have gone from strength to strength.

Mark Barrow

Mark Barrow has worked in social housing for 22 years specialising in core areas including the delivery of ASB services; dealing with formal complaints and using communication skills to avoid conflict and build positive relationships with tenants and residents and across housing teams.

Mark is also an experienced trainer delivering apprenticeship teaching and learning across social housing as well as delivering tailored leadership and management in housing and across other sectors. His training sessions are relaxed and informal, interactive and always aim to be fully inclusive and above all enjoyable for all. Mark has received excellent feedback from all levels of staff and management both online and face to face and always looks to tailor his sessions to the needs of those attending and to individual organisations.

Mel Cant

Mel trained as a Barrister and came to the Bar in 2000. She doesn’t practice independently, choosing to work in the Social Housing Sector which she has done now for over 25 years.

She covers all aspects of social housing law from housing advice, homelessness, allocations, lettings, tenancy and leasehold management, antisocial behaviour, asset management and disrepair.

She undertakes homelessness reviews for nine local authorities and also undertakes training and consultancy providing practical solutions to legal issues within the sector.

Her favourite feedback ever is “Everyone needs a Mel on speed dial!”

Michael Guest

Michael Guest is a well-established and sought-after consultant and trainer in housing. His expertise and experience extends across the housing sector, with specialisms in governance and resident engagement. He is known for his highly professional, yet relaxed and approachable working style that lends itself in particular to learning and development assignments. This is combined with working comfortably at political and governance levels, through executive, management and operational staff and with involved residents and communities.

After holding a number of senior management positions in housing, Michael has now provided consultancy and training to the sector for 30 years.

Michael is a Chartered Housing Professional, Chartered Management Consultant and Chartered Manager. He is also a Fellow of the Institute of Leadership and Management, the Royal Society for Public Health, the Chartered Management Institute, the Institute of Consulting; was awarded an MSc. (with Merit) in Leadership and Management in 2017, an MSc. (with Distinction) in Housing Studies in 2020 and a Postgraduate Certificate in Corporate Governance (with Distinction) in 2020.

Mike Garde

Since the rise of ChatGPT (2022), Mike has immersed himself in understanding AI and how it can best serve businesses.

Over the past 24 months, Mike has delivered both in person training and webinars to well over 2,000 individuals, equipping them with the tools to unlock AI’s power in their personal and professional lives. He has had the privilege of sharing insights with organisations like Multiverse, The Coaching Academy, the Association of Accounting Technicians (AAT), Even the Founder of New Look, and many other companies and groups.

His passion lies in breaking down barriers and fears around AI and empowering as many people as possible to embrace its transformative potential.

Nancy Witham

Nancy Witham has more than 30 years’ experience within the social housing sector. She delivers innovative, engaging, interactive training to operational staff in repairs and maintenance, neighbourhoods, customer service and business IT systems. Nancy’s style of training makes learning enjoyable and relevant and her training programmes receive consistently excellent feedback.

Nigel Greenwood

Nigel has mapped and designed customer journeys, improved the customer experience and managed complaints for all types and sizes of organisation across all sectors since 2004.

He is an international speaker, has run workshops worldwide and designed and now delivers three workshops for HQN on customer journey mapping, customer experience/service and complaint handling.

Known as a plain-speaking Yorkshireman, Nigel has a wealth of knowledge and experience that he brings to his workshops and also has had three books published on customer experience and journey mapping.

Peter Wilson

Peter Wilson has over 30 years’ experience in public and private sector housing. A chartered environmental health practitioner and a chartered surveyor, he has also worked as a housing manager responsible for over 11,000 properties. He is still actively involved in survey work, litigation and consultancy. He combines a wealth of ‘hands-on’ knowledge with an interactive training style and extensive experience.

Richard Paris

Richard Paris has an MA from Queens’ College, Cambridge and a post-graduate Diploma in Housing from LSE. From 1991-93, he was senior research officer at LSE Housing, and has worked for short-life and supported housing agencies, mainstream housing associations and local authorities. He is a freelance housing law specialist with 20 years’ training and development experience undertaking educational training, consultancy, policy and procedure health checks. He specialises in housing law updates, dealing with anti-social behaviour effectively, preventing and controlling rent arrears, do-it-yourself possession proceedings, the law in supported housing and the law on disrepair and best practice.

Roger Jarman

Roger Jarman is a long-standing HQN associate. He provides consultancy services, leads training programmes and writes on housing regulation and other matters. He is the author of HQN’s toolkit on the new regulatory framework for social housing.

Apart from his consultancy work, Roger runs a small housing charity in West London. In September 2024, he was appointed Chair of the Independent Housing Board for the London Borough of Ealing. He has held non-executive positions in three housing providers.

He has worked in senior positions in both housing associations and local authorities. From 1991 to 1999, he was Head of Housing Management at the Housing Corporation and from 1999 to 2011, he was Head of Housing at the Audit Commission, overseeing the 1,400 housing inspections undertaken by the commission during that period. He was a member of the team that produced the Cave Review of social housing regulation in 2007.

Simon Bernstein

Simon Bernstein is a specialist Coach and Training advisor to Housing Associations across the UK.

Simon helps revitalise your teams and your leaders, giving them the confidence and ability to take their performance – and your business – to the next level. Simon doesn’t do box ticking. His work is about engaging your people to bring about real and sustainable change.

Because we understand your industry sector and your challenges, we can focus on your key performance issues with tailored solutions.

Sue Waterall

Sue Waterall is a skilled trainer and facilitator with wide-ranging experience in the social housing sector. Passionate about personal and team development, Sue uses her energy to create a positive, stimulating and inclusive learning environment. Sue wants learners to feel comfortable asking any question in a safe space to enable exploration of solutions. A believer in lifelong learning, Sue enjoys bringing people together to share best practice, discuss challenges and learn from experiences.

Sue is a member of the Chartered Management Institute and an Associate of the Institute of Leadership & Management. She holds the CIPD Certificate in Training Practice.

Tahira Hussain

Tahira Hussain MA, MSc, CBP, PG Dip CBT, PG Cert APIMH, BA (Hons), MBPsS

With over 30 years of experience in the housing, corporate and voluntary sectors, Tahira is a highly skilled trainer with a proven track record in delivering impactful training. A qualified Cognitive Behavioural Psychotherapist and member of BABCP and BPS, she has worked with national agencies to design and deliver training packages across housing, health and community sectors. She has also held key leadership roles, including Trustee for Central Action Women’s Aid and The Big Life Group and Specialist Domestic Abuse Lead for Self Help Services.

Teagan Robinson-Bell

Teagan is a Diversity, Equity and Inclusion strategist with extensive experience in the housing sector, supporting organisations to embed equity into governance, services and workplace culture. With a background in HR, her work sits at the intersection of people, policy and systems, helping housing providers meet regulatory expectations while improving real-world outcomes for tenants and colleagues.

Educated in law and CMI Level 7 qualified, Teagan brings a structured, evidence-led approach to areas such as equality impact assessments, resident engagement, inclusive leadership and organisational accountability. Her practice challenges performative approaches to EDI, focusing instead on practical, sustainable change that stands up to scrutiny and reflects lived experience.

Andrew Wilson

Andrew is an experienced business leader, consultant, and coach, with over 28 years’ experience in housing. Over the last 14 years he has specialised in supporting major organisational transformational projects, including the creation of a new landlord within an existing group structure, turning around a failing organisation and improving team and customer service performance within a range of housing organisations.

Ann Cornelius

Ann is a senior housing professional who has operated as an Executive Director and Chief Executive in Housing Associations in England and Wales for over thirty years.  She now works as a consultant with housing organisations, supporting them with large scale change projects and business transformation, governance reviews and developing risk strategies.  She specialises in working with care and supported housing services to develop policies, to improve practice and to assess compliance with regulation.  She has also worked in an interim capacity with housing associations and local authorities, developing housing strategy and responses to homelessness.

Chris Poulton

Chris is an expert in asset management and compliance. He has over 20 years’ experience operating at director and executive director level including two arm’s length management organisations who were awarded the coveted three stars from the Audit Commission and a housing association, awarded second place in the Sunday Times top 100 not for profit organisations to work for. He also has experience as a non-executive director on the board of building maintenance and new build companies. Chris covers all aspects of the Safety and Quality Standard, including assessing against the standards and assisting organisations with their improvement plans.

Dave Simmons

Dave Simmons currently works as a Dispute Resolution Improvement Manager for a large housing association.

He is an experienced trainer in complaints handling in the housing sector covering a wide range of subject areas. He was formerly Sector Development Lead at the Housing Ombudsman Service where he was responsible for the writing and delivery of training workshops, webinars and forums to different audiences including residents, landlords and Boards. Dave also led on the project to produce the Ombudsman’s first ‘Complaint Handling Code’ which sets out best practice complaint handling for the sector.

Outside of his full-time roles, Dave’s training experience extends to his work as an associate for Tpas (tenant engagement experts). He is also an experienced accredited mediator and has mediated on a wide range of disputes including family, community and workplace. As well as his private mediation work, he volunteers for a community mediation charity in Croydon where he is a Board Trustee.

Emma Foxall

Emma worked for the Housing Ombudsman for 20 years in a variety of roles including Director of Dispute Resolution and Deputy Ombudsman.  She was responsible for setting up the Quality, Engagement and Development Directorate and co-authored the Complaint Handling Code.

She worked at Shelter for four years providing training and consultancy for housing advice agencies and Citizens Advice. She also worked for Camden Council in the Housing Legal Team and then later in the Customer Services and Engagement Team, overseeing compliance with Ombudsman decisions.

Emma is a Solicitor with many years of experience providing training to landlords in housing law and complaint handling best practice.  She is also an accredited mediator and a lay panel member for fitness to practice panels dealing with complaints about health care professionals and nurses.

Emma Towler

Emma is an HQN Associate, specialising in home ownership and service charges, income maximisation and welfare reform. She is the joint author of the HQN service charge toolkit with Jackie Dickins and Head of Home Ownership and Service Charges at Aster Group UK.

Helen Muir

Helen Muir has extensive experience in the housing sector having worked in senior roles for two large housing groups, where her responsibilities included sales programme delivery and the management of over 5,000 shared ownership/leasehold homes, as well as leading on anti-money laundering process and procedure.

Helen has worked as a trainer and consultant since 2012 specialising in affordable home ownership, leasehold management, Right to Buy and anti-money laundering. She has provided interim management and strategic and operational support to a number of registered providers, local authorities and private sector companies and is HQN’s lead on anti-money laundering.

Ian Parker

Ian Parker is a qualified accountant and he has an extensive background in local government and the social housing sector. During his career, he has held senior positions in local government and served as the Finance Director for four registered providers. For the past 14 years, Ian has worked as a consultant, during which time he has:

• Developed HQN’s value for money (VfM) metric model
• Provided advice on the sector’s VfM agenda
• Conducted over 40 mock in-depth assessments (IDAs)
• Developed HQN’s stress testing model
• Provided rent consultancy advice to clients
• Provided technical advice to the 100+ members of HQN’s Housing Finance Network.

Jackie Dickins

Jackie Dickins has been an HQN Associate since 2001 and is a lead consultant for HQN’s Leasehold Network. Prior to this she held positions at a London borough and two large housing associations based in London, where she was responsible for leasehold management and promoting work in the field of low-cost home ownership initiatives. Jackie undertakes many of HQN’s service reviews and service improvement work on leaseholder and home ownership. She has also worked in interim positions with a number of local authorities, arm’s length management organisations and housing associations as head of home ownership/home ownership manager.

Jackie also runs pre-exam workshops at associate and member level for the Institute of Residential Property Managers (IRPM) and is delivering training for apprentices seeking associate membership of the IRPM.

Jane Eyles

Jane is an HQN Associate and has been a social housing resident, board member and consultant specialising in resident engagement since 1990. This means she is able to bring multiple perspectives into housing. She has held senior positions such as Head of Housing for Brighton Housing Trust, Head of Engagement for LB Camden, Genesis and Hexagon and Tpas SE Regional Manager as well as 20 years consultancy including the development of resident led scrutiny.

John Goodwin

John Goodwin is a housing trainer and consultant, with extensive experience in the social housing sector, particularly in complaint-handling, resident involvement and governance.

John was Compliance and Systemic Lead at the Housing Ombudsman Service until 2022, responsible for addressing systemic failings by landlords. He was involved in drafting the Ombudsman’s first ‘Complaint Handling Code’ and for delivering training to landlords, residents and others to improve complaint-handling and learning from complaints across the sector.

Prior to joining the Ombudsman, John spent ten years with the Audit Commission’s Housing Inspectorate – inspecting a range of housing organisations and services.

John previously worked for Shelter in several roles, including Head of Legal Services and Editor of ROOF magazine. He began his housing career in homelessness, housing advice and resettlement with a London borough.

John has written and edited a number of publications including: ‘Built to Last’ (a history of British housing policy).

John is also an accredited mediator and a trustee and past chair of a social care charity.

Kevin Bentley

Kevin has worked in social housing in both the local government and housing association sectors for over 30 years, specialising in housing maintenance and stock investment issues.

Kevin is HQN’s lead asset management consultant. He developed the HQN repairs and maintenance accreditation certification system and is now the lead assessor for our accreditations. He is also our expert on value for money in asset management and procurement and has run numerous seminars and workshops on this. He provides regular bespoke training for organisations on procurement, value for money and contract management.

Mark Henderson

Mark has a long and distinguished career in social housing with over 40 years’ housing-related experience. He works as an associate with HQN, undertaking consultancy and research in a variety of areas for members across the UK.

He was previously Director of Housing at Wolverhampton Homes, where he was influential in taking the ALMO to a three-star excellent rating.

His major interests are income collection and arrears recovery. He’s passionate about tenant involvement and engagement, tenant management organisations, anti-social behaviour, and all general housing management issues.

Mark Lake

Mark has 30+ years of expertise in the supported and social housing sector. He was director of housing with Hanover and then Anchor Hanover. More recently he worked for Housing 21 in a business development role.  Mark also has direct experience of developing and leading services across specialist supported housing, including services for people experiencing mental ill health, young homeless people and rough sleepers. As a consultant, Mark has undertaken several large-scale service reviews with providers of housing and care including reviewing the service of the largest supported living provider in Northern Ireland as well as services provided by smaller specialist supported housing providers.

Michael Guest

Michael Guest is a well-established and sought-after consultant and trainer in housing. His expertise and experience extends across the housing sector, with specialisms in governance and resident engagement. He is known for his highly professional, yet relaxed and approachable working style that lends itself in particular to learning and development assignments. This is combined with working comfortably at political and governance levels, through executive, management and operational staff and with involved residents and communities.

After holding a number of senior management positions in housing, Michael has now provided consultancy and training to the sector for 30 years.

Michael is a Chartered Housing Professional, Chartered Management Consultant and Chartered Manager. He is also a Fellow of the Institute of Leadership and Management, the Royal Society for Public Health, the Chartered Management Institute, the Institute of Consulting; was awarded an MSc. (with Merit) in Leadership and Management in 2017, an MSc. (with Distinction) in Housing Studies in 2020 and a Postgraduate Certificate in Corporate Governance (with Distinction) in 2020.

Mike Victory-Rowe

Mike is a chartered building surveyor with more than 30 years’ experience in property asset management and social housing. He works with a range of clients and partners to deliver innovative asset management solutions to the sector and has advised numerous social housing providers on strategic asset management and investment, active asset management solutions, business intelligence and performance, property option appraisals and disposals and health and safety compliance.

Peter Walters

Peter Walters specialises in working with executive teams, boards and residents on strategy, team building, governance, resident engagement and mergers. He’s also the author of HQN’s governance toolkit. Peter has been chief executive of two large housing associations and a director of housing and social services for a London local authority.  He has worked closely with many boards, board members and chairs, and taken on a number of non-executive roles over the years, including chairing an ALMO.  He is currently a non-executive director of a local authority regeneration subsidiary and of the charity, Housing Justice. Peter speaks at conferences and writes about social housing issues – about which he feels strongly – for a variety of publications and on social media.

Peter Wilson

Peter Wilson has over 30 years’ experience in public and private sector housing. A chartered environmental health practitioner and a chartered surveyor, he has also worked as a housing manager responsible for over 11,000 properties. He is still actively involved in survey work, litigation and consultancy. He combines a wealth of ‘hands-on’ knowledge with an interactive training style and extensive experience.

Roger Jarman

Roger Jarman is a long-standing HQN associate. He provides consultancy services, leads training programmes and writes on housing regulation and other matters. He is the author of HQN’s toolkit on the new regulatory framework for social housing.

Apart from his consultancy work, Roger runs a small housing charity in West London. In September 2024, he was appointed Chair of the Independent Housing Board for the London Borough of Ealing. He has held non-executive positions in three housing providers.

He has worked in senior positions in both housing associations and local authorities. From 1991 to 1999, he was Head of Housing Management at the Housing Corporation and from 1999 to 2011, he was Head of Housing at the Audit Commission, overseeing the 1,400 housing inspections undertaken by the commission during that period. He was a member of the team that produced the Cave Review of social housing regulation in 2007.

Shaheen Mahtabuddin

Shaheen Mahtabuddin is an independent consultant specialising in service transformation and strategic improvement across the housing and public services sector. With extensive experience leading complex change and transformation programmes, she supports organisations to redesign services, embed culture change and improve performance in line with evolving regulatory expectations, including the Consumer Standards.

Her expertise includes insourcing externally commissioned services, leading organisational restructures and delivering service improvement initiatives across housing management, housing needs, homelessness prevention and supported housing. Shaheen works closely with leadership teams to deliver tangible results, whether improving service delivery, enhancing compliance or designing new operating models.

Passionate about meaningful transformation that puts residents and service users at the heart of services, Shaheen brings a collaborative and people-focused approach to change.

Suzanne Hemingway

Suzanne has over 30 years’ experience of the social housing sector. She started as a volunteer in a women’s refuge and a homelessness shelter and went on to manage a variety of services for disadvantaged groups. She has held senior roles in both strategic and operational teams.  As a consultant, Suzanne provided advice and training to a wide range of national, regional and local organisations from 2008 – 2016, when she returned to a full-time director role, integrating the wider housing brief – strategy, repairs, management and homelessness – with wider community engagement, development, arts and leisure briefs. In returning to consultancy, Suzanne brings experience of supporting boards and elected members to deal with adverse events, and to prepare for new housing regulation, as well as of providing advice and training at a senior level.  Suzanne has been a Fellow of CIH for many years.

Tim Brown

Tim is an HQN associate and an independent consultant. He specialises in housing, planning and local government and focuses on social housing allocations, homelessness, affordable housing provision and safeguarding. He has worked on projects for many councils and housing associations as well as for government departments.

He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, a Member of the Regional Studies Association and a Corporate Member of the Chartered Institute of Housing. He was previously chairperson of the Homes Board of East Midlands Housing Group (EMHG) and an Honorary Research Associate at De Montfort University on housing and local government.

Tim Horsley

Tim Horsley spent over 25 years in local government, housing management and community safety in central London, the West Midlands and the North West. He is an associate consultant who is experienced in writing strategies, policies and procedures, carrying out service reviews, and health checks. Specialist areas include anti-social behaviour and tenancy management, community safety and estate management, homelessness services, hostel management, temporary accommodation and leasing schemes and allocations and lettings. Tim has also written several briefings and toolkits on managing ASB, homelessness, neighbourhood management and the practical aspects of housing law as well as developing and delivering training on ASB policies and procedures.

Wayne Hughes

Wayne is HQN’s specialist in asset management, repairs and maintenance. He has experience as a consultant and director of property and building services which spans two decades. As well as many years of working as a consultant in this area he also has hands on practical experience of delivering and overseeing the repairs and maintenance service, having worked for several councils and associations.