Struggling with tight budgets and limited resources? Under pressure to raise the standards of your empty properties and increase tenant satisfaction?

We know how tough that can be. That’s why HQN’s top experts on lettings and voids will take delegates through the whole process and provide you with the latest tips and advice.

Damian Roche, HQN Director and author of HQN’s recently updated empty homes and lettings toolkit, will lead the session. He’ll use his extensive experience of undertaking assessments against the consumer standards and wider service reviews to explore different approaches highlighting good practice and effective solutions.

Kevin Bentley, HQN associate and asset management specialist, will focus on the repairs and maintenance aspect. He’ll cover all the essential elements of empty property maintenance which are needed to ensure a quality product is delivered in a timely fashion.

This virtual workshop will cover all aspects of the empty homes and lettings journey, including:

• Making effective use of the notice period
• Managing the works efficiently
• Getting the specification right
• Adopting a customer-focussed approach to the lettings process
• What’s needed for a “sustainable tenancy”.

All delegates will receive a copy of HQN’s revised toolkit.

If you have a particular challenge please let us know in advance. We’ll make sure to cover it.

If you’re looking for solutions and the latest best practice this is the workshop for you.

What will be covered:

• An overview of the end to end process, setting out practical solutions to the common challenges faced by landlords
• Practical tips to reduce re-let times, while delivering a quality product and customer experience
• Case studies from housing associations and councils.

Essential for everyone responsible for voids and lettings:

• Voids and lettings managers/heads of service
• Directors of housing
• Directors of assets
• Heads of housing
• Heads of repairs teams
• Heads of allocations
• Data and insight teams
• Customer experience and engagement teams.

10:30am Chair’s welcome and introduction

• Damian Roche, Director, HQN

10:40am Let well, sustain well, end well

• Damian Roche, Director, HQN

Damian, who has reviewed the voids and lettings process across many housing providers, will set out ways in which providers can make best use of the notice and void periods to achieve a quick and sustainable let.

11:10am Voids management case study

• Darren Dunphy, Head of Repairs and Maintenance, Black Country Housing Group

Darren will talk about the development of a voids management system, which enables the organisation to effectively manage the end-to-end process

11:40am Break

11:50am Managing vacant property works

• Kevin Bentley, Associate, HQN

Kevin, who leads on HQN’s voids accreditation service, will talk about getting the specification of works right and managing works efficiently.

12:20pm Using AI to improve the voids management process

• Samantha Wright, Performance Manager for Planning and Logistics, CHP

• Lee Waters, Development Delivery Manager Digital and Transformation, CHP

Chelmer Housing Partnership will talk about the development of an AI bot to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of their voids management process.

12:50pm Conclusions and questions

• Damian Roche, Director, HQN

1:00pm Close

Damian Roche, Director, HQN

Damian is one of HQN’s experts on the consumer standards. He has played a key role in our consultancy projects since the new regulatory framework began its journey into law and supported a wide range of organisations (local authorities, housing associations and ALMOs) with their self assessments and improvement plans. His particular areas of expertise are in customer engagement and wider stakeholder engagement as well as governance, complaints management.

Damian is a regular speaker at HQN events and recently devised and delivered a series of workshops to assist providers with their preparations for the new regulatory framework. He has developed toolkits for use in self-assessments, the latest covering the empty homes and lettings process and our condensed toolkit for the regulation of social housing.

As well as the learning and insight that Damian has gained through consultancy and project work Damian also has hands- on practical experience of delivering services. He has worked in the housing sector for more than 20 years’ much of which has been at a senior/executive level, including eight years as director of customer experience for Accent Housing.

Kevin Bentley, Associate, HQN

Kevin has worked in social housing in both the local government and housing association sectors for over 25 years, specialising in housing maintenance and stock investment issues.

Kevin has been a HQN Associate for over 14 years, providing advice and support to many housing organisations.

He has in-depth knowledge of all aspects of operational delivery and strategic asset management in the sector. He regularly carries out reviews of gas servicing and maintenance for organisations. He has in-depth knowledge of service delivery and best practice in the sector delivered by in-house/DLO contractors and out-sourced arrangements

Kevin is also one of HQN’s key accreditation assessors specialising in HQN: DLO and HQN: gas repairs and asset management accreditations. He is also one of HQN’s trainers responsible for contract management and procurement.

Kevin has carried out upwards of 120 service reviews and similar in-depth assessments of repairs and maintenance services for HQN clients, including a large number of gas servicing and maintenance reviews for organisations with both in-house contractors or outsourced and hybrid arrangements.

Darren Dunphy, Head of Repairs and Maintenance, Black Country Housing Group

Sam Wright, Performance Manager for Planning and Logistics, CHP

Sam has worked in social housing for 12 years, specialising in planning and having in-depth knowledge of operational performance data and supply chain. Sam holds key knowledge and understanding in planning systems.

Sam is heavily involved in operational projects and upgrades and works closely with development to think outside of the box to drive change in repairs and maintenance for CHP. Sam has been heavily involved in working with the business and HQN to successfully received accreditation for CHP’s DLO since 2011.

Lee Waters, Development Delivery Manager Digital and Transformation, CHP

Lee has worked in social housing at Chelmer Housing for 10 years and worked in IT for the past 6 years.

Lee has a broad knowledge in all areas of housing having worked as a project analyst during the migration of housing platforms in 2018. Lee has implemented the first RPA solution with Chelmer and is currently working on a second.

Lee is also a certified Agile PM and uses this when developing new systems and automation to ensure projects are kept on track

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

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

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

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