duration

Location
London

Rapid regulatory change, economic uncertainty and emerging technologies – this year’s HQN annual conference explores evolving expectations, sector resilience and future innovation. We’re bringing senior housing professionals together to share best practice, assess risk and prepare organisations for what’s next.

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    Taking place over two days in July

    Day one: online on Tuesday 14 July

    Day two: face-to-face at The View in London on Thursday 16 July.

    This year’s HQN annual conference examines how housing providers can respond to heightened regulatory expectations, strengthen resilience in an uncertain political and economic climate, and prepare for the future of service delivery.

    Through expert insight, practical examples and forward-looking discussion, the programme focuses on improving performance, managing risk and delivering better outcomes for residents.

    Explore how organisations can respond to evolving regulatory requirements and demonstrate strong performance. Sessions will cover the changing landscape, from STAIRs to competence and conduct, alongside practical examples from C1 organisations on stock condition, safety, quality, complaints handling and resident engagement. The conference will also feature reflections from the outgoing Housing Ombudsman Richard Blakeway on his six years in the role and what lies ahead.

    With ongoing political and economic uncertainty, organisations must strengthen governance and risk management. We’ll examine stress testing in turbulent times, the latest sector risk profile, and the implications of global politics, the UK economy and local election outcomes for social housing providers.

    Looking ahead, the conference explores innovation, leadership and sector transformation. Hear from our five finalists as they take part in the final of this year’s Housing’s Next Generation competition, consider the emerging impact of AI on housing services, and discuss the growing momentum behind English and Welsh campaigns for a national tenant voice.

    What will be covered:

    Raising the bar – meeting regulatory expectations:

    • Understanding the evolving regulatory landscape – from STAIRs to competence and conduct
    • Showcasing best practice in C1 organisations – stock condition, safety, quality, complaints, resident engagement
    • How to improve performance
    • Housing Ombudsman – Richard Blakeway reflects on last six years and looks ahead to the future of the service.

    Sector resilience in a volatile world:

    • Stress testing in turbulent times
    • The evolving sector risk profile
    • The impact of global events
    • The state of the UK economy
    • Local elections and the state of the regions.

    The future of housing:

    • Housing’s Next Generation grand final
    • The impact of AI on housing – what are we seeing so far and what to expect
    • Campaigning for a national tenant voice.

    Keynote speakers:

    Day one

    Day two
    Vicky Spratt, Housing correspondent for The Independent and author of Tenants – The People on the Frontline of Britain’s Housing Emergency

    Will Perry, Director of Strategy, Regulator of Social Housing

    Laura Giles, Director of Strategy, Barnet Homes

    Orla Gallagher, Chief Executive, Housing Solutions

    		 Andy Roe, Former Commissioner of London Fire Brigade and Chair of the Building Safety Regulator

    Richard Blakeway, Housing Ombudsman

    Guy Marshall, Director, Fuza

    Ben Marshall, Research Director, Ipsos

    Annalisa Howson, Director of Housing Services, Guildford Borough Council

    If you are a member of the Housing Quality Network, you have a free place at our annual conference as a part of your membership.

    Contact the events team at [email protected] to find out how many free places you have available.

  • Our speakers

    Alistair McIntosh, Chief Executive, HQN
    Alistair McIntosh is one of the social housing sector’s most respected and best known personalities. As founder and Chief Executive of HQN, he is regarded as one of the foremost advisers on governance and regulation.  His hands-on approach sees Alistair leading on all HQN’s mock inspection exercises and chairing/speaking at conferences and events.

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

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

    Shauna Hutchinson, People Advisor, Sovereign Network Group
    Shauna Hutchinson has been with SNG (formerly Network Homes) since 2014, developing a breadth of experience across the social housing sector. Her career has spanned asset management complaints, community engagement, and resident involvement, giving her a strong understanding of the customer lifecycle.

    As a former Resident Engagement Manager, Shauna later transitioned into HR in 2023, building on over a decade as an employee representative. Her leadership, including serving as Chair, earned executive recognition and the 24 Housing Young Leader Award in 2019.

    Shauna brings expertise in communications, consultation, project delivery, service improvement, and complaints management.

    Mica Joseph, Regional Director of Places (London), Riverside
    Regional Director of Places at Riverside, Mica is passionate about communication and stakeholder engagement being key factors in what we do to deliver great services. A regular presence at sector conferences, she’s progressed through housing roles driven by passion and intrigue, learning from those who’ve led her and from her own experiences to deliver continuous improvements to our sector.

    Named as a Forty Under Forty by Inside Housing and a Top Thirty Housing Today Champion, Mica brings both sector credibility and a refreshingly honest perspective. In her downtime, Mica travels and explores new places as her reenergizing and rethinking time.

    Mica has worked with HQN over the last six years on several different projects and continues to be a key ally. She was also one of our HQN Future Leader finalists. We’re excited to have her co-chairing the conference this year.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

    Andy Roe, Former Commissioner of London Fire Brigade and Chair of the Building Safety Regulator
    Andy Roe is the former Commissioner of London Fire Brigade (2020-2025), where he led one of the world’s largest emergency services through a period of unprecedented transformation in the aftermath of the Grenfell Tower tragedy and a highly critical statutory inspection. He currently holds several national board appointments including Chair of the Building Safety Regulator.

    Tasked with delivering whole-organisation reform, Andy created and implemented a new strategy that, in 5 years, not only took LFB out of special measures, but saw it recognised as the most significantly improved fire service in the United Kingdom.

    Drawing on his experience as both LFB Commissioner and a former British Army Captain, Andy offers invaluable insights into building and leading resilient teams under pressure, and offers real-world insights into risk management, organisational culture change, and what it takes to deliver lasting improvement particularly when stakes are at their highest.

    Andy received a life peerage in the New Year’s Honours list in 2026.

    Vicky Spratt, Housing correspondent, The i Paper and author of Tenants: The People On The Frontline of Britain’s Housing Emergency
    Vicky Spratt is an award-winning journalist, author, and housing rights advocate. She has been shortlisted for the Orwell Prize three years in a row (2023, 2024, 2025). Her first book, TENANTS, was a Financial Times book of the year in 2022. Vicky is a correspondent and columnist at The i Paper. She writes about the housing crisis, inequality, society, economics and politics. Her work has seen her nominated for a British Journalism Award. In 2017, her writing about the plight of private renters got letting fees banned (the Tenant Fees Act 2019). She gives evidence in Parliament and her work is often referenced by politicians in both houses.

     

    Vicky’s second book, We Were Promised The Moon, will be published in 2026. It is an agenda-setting analysis of how the economic settlement of the last 30 years has fundamentally reshaped life for young adults today.
    You’ll find Vicky regularly on Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg, Newsnight, Radio 4, the Andrew Marr Show on LBC, and the Newsagents. Failing that, you’ll see her speaking at political festivals or interviewing household names such as Michael Gove, Jeremy Corbyn and Angela Rayner.

    Vicky’s writing is also in demand from other publications such as ELLE and Refinery29 because of her ability to write about complex socio-political and economic problems engagingly.

    Annalisa Howson, Director of Housing Services, Guildford Borough Council
    Annalisa is a proud housing professional with more than 30 years’ experience in social housing, driven by a commitment to ensuring everyone has a good place to call home. As Director of Housing Services at Waverley Borough Council and Guildford Borough Council, she leads teams through a rapidly changing housing landscape, with a strong focus on tenant involvement, performance management and professionalism. She has also led teams through Regulator of Social Housing engagement and inspection processes, achieving a C2 rating for Waverley Borough Council in February 2025 and, most recently, a C1 rating for Guildford Borough Council in March 2026.

    Formerly CIH South East and London Regional Group Leader, Annalisa is a dedicated CIH member, helping to raise the profile of social housing and promote professionalism across the sector to ensure everyone has a good place to call home.

    		  

    Will Perry, Director of Strategy, Regulator of Social Housing
    Will heads the regulator’s strategy function, including private finance, policy, registrations, new entrants, business intelligence and stakeholder relations. Recently he has been leading the development of the Regulator’s response to the Social Housing White Paper.

    A qualified chartered accountant, he has previously worked in corporate finance lead advisory, government audit and housing consultancy and is a non-executive director of The Housing Finance Corporation.

    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 and 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.

    Laura Giles, Director of Strategy, Barnet Homes
    Laura has worked for The Barnet Group since 2016. Previously a Head of Service, she became part of the executive management team in September 2023 as Director of Strategy.
    She has worked in social housing for nearly 18 years in a variety of roles from resident involvement and complaints management to project and programme management and strategic planning. Her executive responsibilities include strategy and policy, social housing regulation, governance, HR and people development, PR and communications, data protection, complaints and information requests and corporate programmes.As part of her role, Laura also leads on housing and homelessness strategy and policy for the London Borough of Barnet.

    Emma Nicholas, Tenant Voice Advocate, Foundational Alliance Wales and Tenant Coordinator,
    National Independent Tenant Voice Cymru
    Emma has been a social housing tenant for over 30 years and a tenant activist since 2013. She is the Tenants Voice Lead for the Foundational Economy Alliance Wales and Co-ordinator of National Independent Tenant Voice Cymru (NITVC). Her life experience includes living in care as a child and experiencing homelessness. She has worked in several roles including as area manager for 64 stores.

    She is a former chair of the Trivallis Tenant Advisory Panel (TAP). Her role included chairing and helping organise meetings and attending Trivallis board meetings, making sure that tenants had a say in all aspects of the business – from strategy to staff recruitment and PR.

    Emma has played the leading role in establishing NITVC, a new initiative established in January 2025 to make sure the voices of tenants are heard at all levels in Wales.

    Richard Blakeway, The Housing Ombudsman
    Richard was appointed as Housing Ombudsman from 1 September 2019. He has extensive experience in the housing sector, with previous roles including Deputy Mayor of London for Housing, chair of the Homes for London board and a non-executive director of Homes England.

    During his eight years at the Greater London Authority, Richard was responsible for housing investment and land generation programmes. He also led the creation of the first team at City Hall to address rough sleeping, commissioning around £10 million of services each year, as well as the first Social Impact Bond on homelessness.

    Richard is a former board member of the Chartered Institute of Housing and has been an election observer in Somaliland and Ukraine. He is a fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and sits on the Administrative Justice Council.

    Richard chaired the Ombudsman Association from 2021-24 and is a board member of the British Library.

    Ben Marshall, Research Director, Ipsos
    Ben Marshall is a Research Director at Ipsos UK, where he leads research projects and programmes that help clients use evidence, insight and public sentiment to inform better decision-making.

     

    He has worked with a wide range of government, public sector and housing clients, including Shelter, Clarion Housing Group, the National Housing Federation, the Centre for Homelessness Impact, the Chartered Institute of Housing and others. Ben is particularly interested in how lived experience and public opinion can support better policymaking, and was lead author of Ipsos’ guide to evidence-enabled policymaking, Evidently Better.

    Evonne Coleman-Thomas, Assistant Director Strategic Housing, Development and Property Services, North Northamptonshire Council

    Evonne Coleman-Thomas is Director of Strategic Housing Development and Property Services at North Northamptonshire Council, leading the authority’s strategic approach to housing growth, development, asset management and customer-focused property services. She has recently led the council to a C2 regulatory grade and is now developing its improvement plan towards C1 compliance.

    Evonne has more than 20 years’ experience in housing, spanning operational and strategic leadership roles across the sector. She previously served as Vice Chair of a Leicester-based housing association board, bringing governance insight and a strong resident-centred perspective.

    A Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Housing, Evonne holds business, law and professional housing qualifications, and is also a Member of the Institute of Customer Service. Her work is driven by a commitment to equality of access, tenant participation and ensuring diverse communities have a meaningful voice in shaping services.

    Aileen Edmunds, Chief Executive, Longleigh Foundation
    Aileen Edmunds is Chief Executive of Longleigh Foundation – creating opportunities for people in social housing to thrive on their own terms. With 18+ years in housing, philanthropy and social impact, she believes ‘home’ should be the foundation for flourishing life – and this purpose must be the beating heart of social housing. 

    Orla Gallagher, Chief Executive, Housing Solutions
    Orla joined Housing Solutions in September 2016 with over 25 years’ experience in the housing sector. Prior to joining Housing Solutions Orla was Chief Executive of CDS Co-operatives and MD at Genesis Housing Group, Chief Executive of Hounslow Homes and Chief Transformation Officer for the London Borough of Hounslow. Orla has a degree in Housing and Development and qualifications in Housing Management (MCIH), Surveying (RICS) and Business Management (Henley Management College). Orla is an elected FRSA (fellow of the Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts Manufacturing and Commerce). Orla is currently a Trustee at Centrepoint.
  • Day one programme

    10:30am Welcome and introductions

    Alistair McIntosh, Chief Executive, HQN
    Shauna Hutchinson, People Advisor, Sovereign Network Group

    10:40am Regulation overview – Consumer standards, inspection, competence and conduct, STAIRs, stress testing, sector risks

    Will Perry, Director of Strategy, Regulator of Social Housing
    • An overview update on regulatory progress.

    11:20am The Grenfell fire and the transformation of London Fire Brigade – what we can learn about leadership, managing change, resilience and the role of regulation

    Andy Roe, Former Commissioner of London Fire Brigade and Chair of the Building Safety Regulator
    • The night of the Grenfell fire and the lessons learned
    • The transformation of the London Fire Brigade
    • Wider thoughts on leadership, managing change, resilience and the role of regulation.

    12:05pm Break

    12:20pm Housing’s Next Generation semi-final

    1:00pm Lunch

    1:50pm How to do well at inspection and meet the consumer standards – the HQN view

    Damian Roche, Director, HQN 
    • The HQN approach to inspection and consumer standards
    • Drawing on the work that HQN has been doing with social landlords.

    2:20pm The road to C1 – hear from top performing landlords

    Orla Gallagher, Chief Executive, Housing Solutions
    Laura Giles, Director of Strategy, Barnet Homes 
    Evonne Coleman-Thomas, Assistant Director Strategic Housing, Development and Property Services, North Northamptonshire Council
    • Organisations share their consumer standards and inspection journey
    • Highlighting best practice and sharing practical tips.

    3:20pm A national, independent voice for tenants – updates from the new groups in England and Wales

    Emma Nicholas, Tenant Voice Advocate, Foundational Alliance Wales and Tenant Coordinator, National Independent Tenant Voice Cymru
    Aileen Edmunds, Chief Executive, Longleigh Foundation
    • Aims and ambitions
    • Progress so far
    • Future plans.

    3:50pm Closing remarks

    4:00pm Close

  • Day two programme

    10:30am Welcome and introductions

    Alistair McIntosh, Chief Executive, HQN
    Mica Joseph, Regional Director of Places (London), Riverside

    10:40am Tales from the frontline of the housing emergency

    Vicky Spratt, Housing correspondent for the iPaper and author of ‘Tenants’
    • Reflections from reporting on the housing crisis
    • Discussing ‘Tenants’ and Vicky’s new book ‘We were promised the moon’.

    11:20am A farewell to housing and hopes for the future

    Richard Blakeway, Housing Ombudsman
    • A session providing perspective on Richard’s time as housing ombudsman
    • Hopes and fears for the future of housing.

    12:00pm Break

    12:20pm Next Generation final

    1:20pm Lunch

    2:20pm AI in housing

    Guy Marshall, Director, Fuza
    • Why AI is a strategic issue for housing, not just an IT project
    • Practical examples of how AI is already being used across the sector
    • How landlords can move from quick wins to bigger service transformation.

    3:00pm From C3 to C1

    Annalisa Howson, Director of Housing Services, Guildford Borough Council
    • Guildford’s consumer regulations and inspection journey
    • Lessons learned and practical tips.

    3:30pm Break

    3:45pm The state of the nation and what it means for housing

    Ben Marshall, Research Director, Ipsos
    • What the latest political and economic polling tells us about the state of the country and people’s views
    • Where housing fits into the national conversation.

    4:20pm Keynote

    Alistair McIntosh, Chief Executive, HQN
    • The latest views from HQN’s CEO. 

    4:50pm Closing remarks and Next Generation winner announced

    5:00pm Close

  • Our sponsors
    Birketts are partnered with HQN’s main network and regularly run a series of topical legal webinars and events that your team can benefit from. Birketts also produce a variety of communications for HQN’s news streams to cover case studies of the latest issues affecting their clients.

    Jonathan Hulley, Birketts Social Housing Partner, is an acknowledged expert in the field of housing and leasehold management law and is also known for advising social housing providers on best practice, policy and procedure, including the consumer standards set by the Regulator of Social Housing which Housing Associations have to meet. Jonathan is supported by a wider team.
  • Supporting The For Baby’s Sake Trust
    HQN is proud to be supporting The For Baby’s Sake Trust as part of this year’s annual conference.

    The charity works with families to break cycles of domestic abuse and give babies the best possible start in life. Through trauma-informed, therapeutic support, it helps parents make lasting changes while placing the safety, wellbeing and future of the baby at the heart of its work.

    There is a vital connection between domestic abuse, housing security and family wellbeing. A safe and stable home can play a fundamental role in helping families recover, rebuild and move forward. By supporting The For Baby’s Sake Trust, we hope to raise awareness of its work and encourage housing organisations to consider how they can identify need, signpost residents to support and strengthen their response to families experiencing domestic abuse.

    Delegates will hear more about the charity during the conference and can find out more at forbabyssake.org.uk.
  • Cancellations and substitutions

    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.

  • Price and booking

    Member of the Housing Quality Network?

    Contact the team at [email protected] to find out how many free places you have available.

    Bookings are closed for this event.

    If you experience any issues when submitting your booking, please email [email protected] with the name and date of the session along with the delegate name(s), email address(es) and job title(s) and we'll process the booking for you.

Dates



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