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.

Chloe Fletcher

HQN director

Chloe joined HQN in January 2024 as Director, working across all areas of the business. She is a senior and well-respected leader in the social housing sector with over 25 years of experience. She previously worked for the National Federation of ALMOs, leading their policy and lobbying work and working with government and local authority stakeholders to make the case for council housing and ALMOs and share good practice across the ALMO sector. She has also worked for London Councils and started her housing career as a trainee housing officer on Churchill Gardens Estate, Westminster whilst gaining her Masters in Housing with a Professional Qualification. As part of the HQN team she will bring her expertise and knowledge to the wider sector, working initially with the networks and events teams to ensure the HQN membership offer continues to be relevant, useful and of a high quality.

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.

Diane Wilkinson

Head of events and business development

Diane manages the networks and events teams, oversees operations at HQN, and is our Data Protection Officer. Prior to HQN, she worked for over ten years in Development Control at City of York Council working closely with housing teams to develop properties in the city. Diane is dedicated to ensuring that HQN offers our customers excellent value for money, that members are supported by expert advice and essential resources to help them be the best they can be, and that our events consistently inspire and inform.

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.

Sue Beasor

Rent Income Excellence Network

Sue Beasor has worked in benefits for over 20 years. She has worked at a senior level in a number of local authorities and has spent several years working closely with social housing providers.

Sue is an RIEN 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

Janis Bright

HQN lead researcher

Janis Bright is an award winning journalist and a post-doctorate level researcher. Her research projects include analysis of high-performing organisations, governance in England and Scotland and resident involvement in European countries. She is editor of HQN’s topical housing research newsletter Evidence and commissions Network briefings.

Colin Heyman

EDI Network

Colin Heyman is the Lead Associate for the HQN Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Network. He has worked as a trainer, consultant and coach in equality and diversity for over 20 years, and has worked with small companies, large public sector organisations, and third sector organisations, including housing associations. Colin specialises in supporting a network of Diversity Champions to be change agents, and bring about change within their organisation, and in work on white privilege and allyship.

Outside work, Colin loves hillwalking and cinema, and is active in his synagogue.

Bobbie Hough

Housing Management Network

Bobbie is an expert in strategic planning and crisis communications and has worked with some of the UK’s most recognised brands overseeing successful mergers, high profile media campaigns and managing crisis scenarios.

He works with companies to help align communications and business strategies.

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.

Ian Parker

Housing Finance Network

Ian has worked in the public sector for 40 years. During his career he has worked in senior positions in local government and has been the Finance Director at four RPs.  Ian has worked as a consultant for the last eight years and during that period has:

• Developed HQN’s VfM metric model
• Provided advice to clients about the sector’s VfM agenda
• Undertaken in excess of 40 mock In Depth Assessments (IDAs)
• Developed HQN’s merger model.

Ian is HQN’s Lead Finance Associate and in that role he provides advice to members of the Housing Finance Network and also ensures that they receive relevant news and technical updates.

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.

Simon Thomas

Simon Thomas’s passion for Learning and Development comes from the satisfaction of making a difference. Helping people to be at their best in work, (and life), fuels his quest to facilitate the most game-changing learning interventions possible.

His career spans 16 years as a senior leader within Asda/Wal-Mart, progressing through a broad range of senior operational, strategic and commercial positions within the Head Office. Throughout his career Simon has always been deeply involved with developing talent through coaching, mentoring, recruitment and delivering leadership skills programmes. As you might expect from his background, Simon is supremely customer-focused, and always goes the extra mile to deliver memorable learning experiences. His personal learning journey has earned him a CIPD Level 7 accreditation in Learning & Development, Certificates in Stress Management, NLP and Coaching (CMI Level7), accredited practitioner for both the Lumina Spark psychometric model and the Heartstyles Life Indicator – plus he’s a qualified Hypnotherapist and Mental Health First Aider.

Simon has delivered a broad spectrum of training across all Government Departments such as the Royal Air Force, HM Prison Service and the Dept of Work & Pensions, where he brought learning to life for senior Civil Servants. He also facilitates experiential leadership and wellbeing programmes for organisations and private clients in the UK and around the world. The range of people Simon supports is broad, from professional cyclists wanting to develop their mindset, to global leadership teams aiming to develop cross-cultural impact.

As part of a hand-picked Associate training team, he has worked for the past 5 years across Europe and Middle East for Lexus Europe on their Luxury Brand & Customer Experience programme. Simon has a secret passion for both history, and creating experiences that move people, and so it is no surprise that he specializes in bringing Lexus stories to life, enabling retailer teams to connect on a more emotional level with customers, and maximise brand value.

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.

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 difference 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.

Mark Barrow

Mark Barrow has worked in social housing for 15 years specialising in practicing and managing the delivery of ASB services within general needs and supported housing. Mark is also an experienced trainer delivering apprenticeship teaching and learning across social housing as well as delivering tailored leadership and management in housing, healthcare, hospitality and retail. 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 attendees both online and face to face.

Aisha Akhtar

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

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

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

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

Wayne Anderson

Wayne Anderson is an expert lecturer, national conference speaker, chartered surveyor, arbitrator and consultant. His training sessions are lively, colourful and interactive and are based on extensive experience gained over 25 years with best practice organisations involved in the housing repairs and maintenance sector. Wayne has a reputation for simplifying complex issues and encouraging frontline staff to develop a deeper understanding of maintenance issues that can be applied confidently on a day-to-day basis.

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 Chair at Ashton Pioneer Homes in Tameside, Greater Manchester.

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.

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.

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.

Mel Cant

Mel Cant became a Barrister in July 2000 and both prior to and since that time has worked within the housing sector to improve services to the public and providers by providing leadership, practical advice, training, support and guidance in the public, private and voluntary sectors. Mel’s “can do” attitude along with her passion for ensuring equality and fairness for all through outstanding customer service and providing practical solutions has made her a “go to” person within social housing.

Jo Carr

Jo Carr works as an independent leadership and management coach, trainer and consultant in the health, social care and social housing sectors. Before 2013, Jo spent 25 years in management roles in social housing and the voluntary sector.

Jo is a lifelong learning qualified trainer, and an ILM qualified management and mentoring coach. She also has a flair for bringing her learning and perspective from her background to help her clients find solutions for their pressure points.

Jo uses a flexible and eclectic mix of products and models in her work, from NLP to Situational Leadership – with the focus on the client audience developing their ability through increased confidence and capacity. She is also an accredited Belbin team roles facilitator. Jo is a very skilled communicator, with an intuitive approach to working with her audience – and this is borne out in her range of delivery methods as a coach and trainer.

Jackie Dickins

Jackie Dickins has been an HQN Associate since 2001 and is a Lead Associate 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, ALMOs 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.

Jackie is responsible for developing, and is a lead assessor of HQN’s leasehold accreditation scheme.

Nigel Greenwood

Nigel Greenwood is a former head of channel management and head of customer loyalty for HBOS PLC. After 27 years working in large corporates, Nigel launched Simply Customer in 2014 as a customer experience consultancy. He is an international speaker, with three books published on customer experience and journey mapping as well as two e-learning courses available on Udemy.

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 more than 25 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.

Colin Heyman

Colin Heyman has worked in the field of both Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI), and Leadership, for over 25 years, and is the Lead Facilitator for HQN’s EDI network. He’s worked with a lot of different organisations, for example Housing Associations, Local Authorities, arts organisations, Universities, the third sector, and small private companies.

Although not a housing expert, Colin has worked with a lot of different associations over the years so has an understanding of the sector. His wide EDI expertise and external perspective can help you to move forward in your EDI practice.

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.

Tahira Hussain

Tahira Hussain (MBPsS), has extensive experience working in the statutory and voluntary sector. She had a 22-year career in social work, mental health, community development and housing. Having worked in the social housing sector as part of an equality and diversity unit, Tahira has a successful track record in consultancy, training and project management.

She is a graduate member of the British Psychological Society (BPS) and the British Association for Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapies (BABCP). She has worked as a mental health professional practitioner for a number of NHS Trusts nationally and is a private therapist providing assessment and treatment services to individuals, legal firms, schools and corporations.

Tara is also a qualified trainer on safeguarding, professional boundaries, equalities, stress management and personal development. As a freelance consultant her clients include local authorities, the education, health and housing sector nationwide.

Roger Jarman

Roger Jarman’s career in housing spans over four decades. He has worked as an academic, in local government and for a range of central agencies. In the 1990s, he was Head of Housing Management at the Housing Corporation. From 1999 to 2011, Roger worked at the Audit Commission where he was Head of Housing. He is now an independent housing consultant and trainer and has worked for a wide range of housing association and local authority clients. He is a well-respected commentator on housing issues and has spoken and written extensively for HQN and others on housing policy, housing regulation, the private rented sector and related subjects. He has degrees from Essex and Birmingham Universities and is a Chartered Member of CIH.

Debbie Larner

Debbie has worked in the social housing sector for over 30 years within both local authorities and housing associations before moving on to join the professional body – the CIH – where she was Head of Practice. In that time she developed expertise in in a number of areas including housing and asset management, resident engagement, health and safety (specifically building safety post Grenfell). She has also co-led research into the future of social housing, stigma and stereotyping in housing and the role of the housing professional. She has also developed the professional standards for the sector and, as part of this work has a strong interest in how organisations can develop strong values-led cultures, create inclusive behaviours and act as ambassadors for the profession to challenge the stigma and stereotyping in social housing. She is an experienced public speaker, chair and trainer.

Alison Markantonis

Alison Markantonis is an experienced welfare benefits, financial capability and employment skills practitioner, who has worked successfully in the affordable housing and benefits sectors for the last 27 years.

She has worked with many housing and support organisations and brings her extensive experience to specialise in demystifying the benefits system, money management and employability skills training for both frontline staff and tenants. Her approach is participative and interactive, using case studies and her own experience to take the complex, and make it not only simple, but also applicable.

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 of Work and Pensions and the Home Office as well as housing organisations across the 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.

Tony Newman

An independent project manager, consultant and trainer, Tony has over 40 years’ experience across a range of industries, in the private and public sectors, including extensive experience in social housing.

Tony’s work centres on helping clients to maximise income and improve services to customers, especially supporting the financial wellbeing and independence of vulnerable people.

Tony studied psychology and philosophy at the University of Stirling and maintains an interest in communication and behavioural science, which he incorporates into his work.

Tony designed Housing Quality Network’s income management and financial inclusion toolkits and leads on HQN’s unique accreditation service for income management. He has conducted many improvement projects and inspections and has a track record of supporting clients to improve performance in challenging environments.

Tony is a member of numerous professional and representative organisations. These include the Chartered Institute of Housing, Chartered Institute of Credit Management, the British Institute of Learning Disabilities, the Project Management Institute, the Housing Studies Association and the Financial Health Exchange.

Since 2011, Tony has been a visiting lecturer and tutor at the University of Salford and is an associate of the University’s Sustainable Housing and Urban Studies Unit.

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.

Ian Parker

Ian Parker has worked in the public sector for 40 years. During his career he has worked in senior positions in local government and has been the Finance Director at four RPs. Ian has worked as a consultant for the last eight years and during that period has:

• Developed HQN’s VfM metric model
• Provided advice to clients about the sector’s VfM agenda
• Undertaken in excess of 40 mock In Depth Assessments (IDAs)
• Developed HQN’s merger model.

Ian is HQN’s Lead Finance Associate and in that role he provides advice to members of the Housing Finance Network and also ensures that they receive relevant news and technical updates.

Emma Walker-Cotton

Emma Walker-Cotton is an award winning trainer specialising in leadership development. She has over 25 years experience of training design and delivery in both the public and private sector, including working as HR Director for Amnesty International. Emma is passionate about individuals having the opportunity to fulfil their potential and develop their resilience. She always ensures that participants leave the session with practical skills they can implement back in work

Ruth Walker-Cotton

Ruth Walker is a qualified project manager (APM PMQ), a member of the Association of Project Management and has an MSc in Strategic Project Management.

Ruth has extensive experience of writing and implementing strategies and managing campaigns and projects within the charity, NHS and housing sectors. She is experienced in people management and loves designing and implementing systems and processes to ensure clarity and efficiency.

Ruth’s main areas of focus are strategy development and project management – whether working with leaders to develop a feasible strategy and the most effective projects to implement it, setting up project governance and planning processes, training project leaders and teams or guiding them through a project – supporting businesses to improve their strategic and resource planning, working with them as they go through organisational change.

Sue Waterall

Sue Waterall is a training specialist with over 15 years’ experience of training design and delivery in both the public and private sector. She is passionate about personal development and behavioural change, and uses her energy and facilitation skills to create a positive, stimulating learning environment. Sue is a certified practitioner of NLP, is accredited in the use of a range of emotional intelligence inventories and holds the CIPD Certificate in Training Practice.

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.

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.

Lynn Bradley

Lynn worked until recently as head of housing maintenance and assets at Cambridge City Council, responsible for the repairs and maintenance of the Council’s 7,300 social housing assets and commercial and administrative portfolio.  Now, an independent housing consultant, Lynn call upon over 20 years’ experience in the sector to help organisations achieve service improvement with a tenant and leaseholder focus, supporting them to meet regulatory compliance and providing them with assurance. Her clients include senior leaders, managers, and staff from a wide range of corporations and organisations, including housing associations, local authorities and ALMOs. Her business services include: asset management, compliance and regulation, strategy and policy development and/or review, regulatory inspection preparation, organisational, service, and process reviews, and complaint handling analysis. Lynn has a degree in Construction Management, and is a Chartered Member of the CIOB and Member of the CIH.

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 or 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.

Wayne Hughes

HQN’s specialist in asset management, repairs and maintenance, 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.

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.

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.

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 difference 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.

Kevin Bentley

Liz Bisset

Liz is a strategic adviser and coach, specialising in housing, community focused services, and public service reform. Liz is a proven and experienced leader and brings strategic vision, energy and a passion for providing good quality affordable housing. Liz worked as Director of Housing for 10 years during which time she set up a housing delivery model from scratch. Since 2015 she has transferred that determination and skill to work as a housing consultant, and taken on a number of board level responsibilities. As a leader she delivers high added value with a focus on outcomes, a commitment to teamwork, and the ability to bring about transformational change

Tim Brown

Tim Brown BSc(Hons), Dip TP, PhD, MCIH, MeRSA is a qualified town planner and a corporate member of the Chartered Institute of Housing. He is an independent consultant and a Senior Research Associate in Housing and Local Government at De Montfort University. He was previously Director of the Centre for Comparative Housing Research. He has been a board member and chair of a number of housing associations, a director of two social enterprises and a member of Coventry Partnership. His main areas of expertise are the housing needs of older people, economic development and regeneration, housing policy and local government and social housing allocations systems.

Jackie Dickins

Michael Guest

Michael Guest is a well-established and sought-after consultant and trainer in housing. His expertise and experience extend 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 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.

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.

Colin Heyman

Colin Heyman is an EDI specialist and the lead for HQN’s specialist EDI network. He has a clear strategic view of how organisations can improve practice and extensive experience of working with a variety of housing providers as well as other organisations, to successfully improve EDI practice, including:

• Carrying out reviews and reporting back findings
• Working with groups of champions to improve EDI practice across organisations
• Working with leaders on inclusive leadership
• Working with senior teams and boards on strategic equality plans and developing their understanding of D&I
• Delivering training on EDI, inclusive leadership, Equality Impact Assessments, race awareness, antisemitism, cultural awareness
• Drafting and updating policies.

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.

Roger Jarman

Roger Jarman’s career in housing spans over four decades. He has worked as an academic, in local government and for a range of central agencies. In the 1990s, he was Head of Housing Management at the Housing Corporation. From 1999 to 2011, Roger worked at the Audit Commission where he was Head of Housing. He is now an independent housing consultant and trainer and has worked for a wide range of housing association and local authority clients. He is a well-respected commentator on housing issues and has spoken and written extensively for HQN and others on housing policy, housing regulation, the private rented sector and related subjects. He has degrees from Essex and Birmingham Universities and is a Chartered Member of CIH.

Helen Muir

Wendy Murphy

Wendy Murphy is an experienced consultant, facilitator, trainer and coach, with over 20 years’ experience in housing. As a senior manager she has driven and led the turnaround of many previously failing services, with a particular focus on engaging and inspiring existing staff to ensure that change is embedded and long-lasting.

Since becoming an associate of HQN in 2006, Wendy has worked on a range of projects from service reviews and policy development to mock inspections and training. She has worked with over 20 local authorities, housing associations, National Housing Federation, the Department of Health and the Government Office for London. She was previously chair of Flourish Homes, a Somerset-based housing association, and a non-executive director of the Aster Group.

Tony Newman

Ian Parker

Gill Stead

Gill is a highly qualified and experienced housing professional. Particular areas of expertise include:

• A well-developed understanding of housing management service excellence
• Diagnosing service-related issues and helping develop innovative but deliverable solutions
• Helping organisations to plan and deliver significant change/transformation programmes, including organisational restructures.
• A sound understanding of cross UK regulatory expectations.

She is responsible for the development and delivery of HQN’s accreditation services and chair of the accreditation panel. The schemes include:

• Income management
• Estate management
• Repairs and maintenance/DLO
• Leasehold services
• Co-regulation (including governance and scrutiny).

Prior to joining HQN, Gill was lead housing inspector for the North West responsible for managing all regulatory inspection activity (on behalf of the government) across local authorities, housing associations and ALMOs.

Mike Victory-Rowe

Mike Victory-Rowe has 30 years’ experience of working in property and asset management in the housing sector. He works with a range of clients and partners to deliver innovative asset management solutions to the sector and has advised housing associations and charities on strategic asset management and investment, active asset management solutions, business intelligence and performance, property option appraisals and disposals and health and safety compliance. He is a chartered building surveyor. As well as a succession of managerial and executive roles (most recently Assistant Director of Asset Management at Knightstone). Mike has also held a number of non-executive positions.

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.

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.