Members only

The line-up for this year’s Housing Quality Network annual conference is taking shape with a host of top names being added to the line-up.

Focusing on the three Rs dominating much of the social housing conversation in 2023: regulation, reputation and repairs, the conference takes place over two days – one virtual on Tuesday 11 July and one face-to-face in London on Thursday 13 July (The View, London).

With the sector currently facing a perfect storm of challenges including increased scrutiny from government, national media and social media, we will shine a light on practical solutions, positive case studies and the key elements required to repair our reputation with residents, stakeholders and the wider community.

Conference sessions will include:

• How we get repairs and maintenance issues right first time
• Preparing for the new inspection regime
• TSMs, ‘finding your silence’ and the changing face of resident engagement
• The Decent Homes Review and Awaab’s Law – everything you need to know
• The final of HQN’s Housing’s Next Generation competition.

We will also be holding a drinks reception from 5pm onwards after the conference.

Alistair McIntosh, Chief Executive, HQN

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

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

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

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

Angela Holden, Assistant Director, Consumer Regulation, Regulator of Social Housing

Angela Holden is the Assistant Director of Consumer Regulation at the Regulator of Social Housing. She is responsible for managing the Regulator’s current reactive consumer regulation function and supporting in the implementation of the Social Housing White Paper.

Patrick Vernon OBE, social commentator, Windrush campaigner and cultural historian

Patrick is a social commentator and cultural historian, who works in the voluntary and public sector. His career has been involved with developing and managing health and social care services, including mental health, public health, regeneration and employment projects. Also a film maker and amateur cultural historian, he runs his own social enterprise promoting the history of diverse communities, as founder of Every Generation and the “100 Great Black Britons” campaign. He is also an expert on African and Caribbean genealogy in the UK. He was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2012 Birthday Honours for “services to the Reduction of Health Inequalities for Ethnic Minorities”, and in 2018 was awarded an honorary doctorate from the University of Wolverhampton.

In 2018, Patrick led a successful campaign for 22 June to be recognised annually as Windrush Day, a national day acknowledging the migrant contribution to UK society.

Doug Sarney, Director, MRI

Doug plays an integral role in the introduction of new products and services to the social housing sector, working closely with industry thought-leaders and housing providers. He has many years of experience analysing large data sets and developing strategic, mathematical modelling solutions, the last nineteen of which have been in social housing. Currently he is heading up two new initiatives for MRI: The Data Revolution and The Resident Voice Index ^TM.

Hannah Fearn, former Inside Housing, Guardian and Independent journalist

Hannah Fearn is a reporter, writer and columnist covering politics, social affairs and a wide range of other issues. She is the former comment editor of the Independent, and previously worked for The Guardian, Times Higher Education and Inside Housing.

Tom Leon-Grimes, Customer Resilience Lead, Orbit Group

Tom has held a successful and enjoyable career in housing for over 10 years, starting as an Apprentice Housing Assistant, aged 16. Tom has developed a vast understanding of housing through roles in front-line housing, data analysis, business improvement, project management and service development. Last year, Tom was awarded as the winner of the Housing’s Next Generation Competition 2022, run by the Housing Quality Network.

Tom’s current role is with Orbit Housing, head-quartered in Coventry, with over 45,000 homes. As their Interim Customer Resilience Lead, Tom is seconded to an urgent taskforce focussing on improving damp, mould and condensation issues. Tom leads a blended customer service team, overseeing the coordination, communication, complaints, referrals, data and process functions.

Making a positive difference to customers’ lives, and providing much needed quality housing, is Tom’s reason for enjoying working in social housing and Tom is looking forward to identifying and recognising more Next Generation talent, through this year’s competition.

10.30 Welcome and Introduction

• • Alistair McIntosh, Chief Executive, HQN

10.40 Keynote address

• • Patrick Vernon OBE, social commentator, Windrush campaigner and cultural historian

11.15 The new era of proactive consumer regulation

• • Angela Holden, Assistant Director, Consumer Regulation, Regulator of Social Housing

11.45 Regulator Q&A

12.00 Break

12.10 Housing’s Next Generation Grand Final – Task two

• • Sabrina Long, The Guinness Partnership

  • Juwairiah Mussa, Poplar HARCA

  • Michael Farbrace, Porchlight

  • Kate Ratcliffe, VIVID

  • Rhapsody Yells, Poplar HARCA

13.15 Lunch

 14.15 Thoughts on the new consumer regulation and inspection regime

• • Alistair McIntosh, Chief Executive, HQN

14.45 Restoring social housing’s reputation – a view from the media

• • Hannah Fearn, former Inside Housing, Guardian and Independent journalist

15.15 Break

15.30 A look at the work of the Orbit Damp, Mould and Condensation Taskforce

• • Tom Leon-Grimes, Customer Resilience Lead, Orbit Group

16.00 The Resident Voice Index – insights from the latest research

• • Doug Sarney, Director, MRI

16.30 Final remarks

• • Alistair McIntosh, Chief Executive, HQN

16.40 Housing’s Next Generation – winner announced

17.00 Conference close

17.00 Drinks reception

About United Living 

We are place makers, driven by our strong company values that focus on delivering our customers’ expectations, addressing their challenges and leaving behind a positive legacy. We provide the essential services to the owners and operators of critical UK property and infrastructure assets, creating the communities where people want to live, work and play.

No matter what the size of the challenge, our innovative approach to cost management helps our customers and the communities they serve, benefit from resilient infrastructure, beautiful homes and improved environments.

Delivered through our three complementary businesses, we keep our customers at the heart of everything we do and create green spaces that promote safe and inclusive environments for the generation of today and in the future.

Our experienced teams work with a range of customers within the public and private sectors to develop, build, maintain and operate the increasingly complex and critical infrastructure that supports daily life and national economies.With dedicated national teams and our network of supply chain, we bring together people, experience and technology, helping to make our industry safer, cleaner and more collaborative.

Our scale gives us the ability to accept big challenges and build mutually beneficial partnerships, whilst thinking locally, working with our customers to deliver services and infrastructure that will stand the test of time. Our purpose is about making progress, safely, towards a sustainable future for our people, our communities and our business – it’s the United Living way

If you’d like to find out more about the work we do and how we can help you, then we’d love to hear from you, whether you have a specific project or simply want an informal chat.

Tel: 01322 665522

Email: [email protected]

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Totalmobile make work & the lives of mobile workers better with Field Service Management technology.

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About Birketts

Birketts is a full service, top 100 law firm in the UK. With a dedicated social housing team, they have worked with a vast range of clientele including national and regional registered providers, local authorities, private housebuilders, and funders on a wide range of issues affecting the sector. Birkett’s understand social housing is an ever-changing environment, subject to frequent changes driven by Government demands, new legislation and the economy. They have particular strengths in development (including stock transfer) and its related discipline sectors: construction, planning and projects. Allied to this, they can call on their well-established plot sales function to support RP development teams – this is particularly important as the range of home ownership products increases and for those RPs who employ private sales to cross-subsidise schemes. They have a wealth of experience in housing management issues, particularly in relation to nuisance and anti-social behaviour. In addition, they have skilled advisers covering your core business needs such as employment law and funding.

About Paypoint

Paypoint is a leading payments provider in the UK which works across the social housing sector to provide quality payment advice, tailored support, and training in rental income to housing associations and councils across the UK.

With over 20 years of experience in the field of innovating the payments sector, it has a digital omnichannel payments solution – MultiPay. With over 450 clients using MultiPay and over 514 million transactions processed each year, Paypoint is highly experienced in understanding the impact fintech has upon tenant communications.

Paypoint has a range of digital payment channels including Paybylink, the app service, online, text, direct debit, phone/IVR, cash, cashout and recurring card payments.

Its solution multi-pay is a one stop shop for all digital payment, offering a single view of all payment channels and a point of truth including real time cash data. MultiPay offers providers a full API catalogue to integrate into existing systems, easy integration, and a roadmap with ever-evolving new features.

About MRI

MRI Software is a leading provider of web-based solutions for housing associations and local authorities in the UK and Ireland. Through its comprehensive suite of customer-focused products and applications they deliver flexibility, choice and scale to more than 850 social housing clients in the region.

Over the past two years MRI have worked with HQN at a number of events and consulted with members as part of resident led and provider led focus groups to drive findings for the Resident Voice Index research. The Resident Voice initiative is a long-term project to gather anonymised survey responses from people living in social housing in the UK about how they feel about their homes and local surroundings. These short surveys are designed to provide policy makers and housing providers with the information they can use to improve neighbourhoods and communities.

Find out more about the research here;  https://residentvoiceindex.com/