Members only

True to his word Michael Gove has brought back inspection for social housing but do you know what you need to do if you get that letter?  What are the basics they will expect?  Compliance on health and safety issues, a decent asset management strategy, reasonable tenant satisfaction across key areas of repairs, neighbourhood management and engagement? But even if you think you are doing that, can you provide the evidence they will want to see? Have you thought about how you will show your tenants and the regulator that you are meeting the standards and where you have issues that you know about them and have a plan to improve things?

At these two in-person events in Manchester and London you can hear directly from the Regulator of Social Housing on their plans and what they will be looking for as well as benefitting from the insights of Alistair McIntosh, HQN Chief executive and Wayne Hughes, HQN Associate, who have been supporting social housing organisations up and down the country and will share their knowledge to help you on your journey to be inspection ready.

We will also have social housing providers who will share their approach to preparing and doing self-assessments as well as any interaction they have had with the regulator so you can learn directly from those already on their journeys with regulation.

The first event will be in Manchester on 5 June.

Speakers confirmed are:

• Alistair McIntosh, HQN CEO
• Wayne Hughes, HQN Associate
• Angela Holden, Regulator of Social Housing
• Lydia Dlaboha, Deputy CEO, HQN
• Damian Roche, Director, HQN
• Social Housing Provider – tbc.

The second event will be in London on 20 June.

Speakers confirmed are:

• Alistair McIntosh, HQN CEO
• Wayne Hughes, HQN Associate
• Karen Doran, Regulator of Social Housing
• Lydia Dlaboha, Deputy CEO, HQN
• Damian Roche, Director, HQN
• Sally Henthorne, Principal Housing Strategy Officer, Cornwall Council
• Jed Young, Acting Corporate Director Homes and Neighbourhoods, Islington Council.

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.

Wayne Hughes, Associate, HQN

Wayne Hughes is an experienced consultant who has worked at a senior level within private and public sector housing related organisations for the past 40 years. He has authored several articles on asset management related activities and has sat on several advisory bodies for the social housing sector, including sitting on the panel which developed the widely used Disrepair Pre-action Protocol. He was also part of the team which established the English House Condition Survey (now called the English Housing Survey).

Karen Doran, Assistant Director of Regulatory Operations, Regulator of Social Housing

Karen is part of the senior leadership team at the Regulator of Social Housing (RSH) and as Assistant Director Regulatory Operations leads a team of financial and governance regulators responsible for the effective regulation of registered providers.  Previously as Assistant Director Investigation and Enforcement Karen worked on a range of non-compliant governance casework as well as overseeing RSH’s consumer regulation work.

Karen started her career in frontline homelessness and housing management and has worked in housing for almost 30 years in a wide variety of different roles in a local authority and housing association context as well as senior policy roles in central and regional government.   Prior to joining RSH in 2013 she worked in consultancy and from 2008 to 2011 chaired and advised the panel of social housing lenders.  Karen has also been an Audit & Risk Committee member as an independent non-executive director for a housing association based in Northern Ireland.

Lydia Dlaboha, Deputy CEO, HQN

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, Director, HQN

Damian began his career working in homelessness and housing advice before moving into housing management. He has over 20 years’ experience at senior level in a variety of housing organisations, including local authorities and housing associations. For much of the last decade, Damian was Director of Customer Experience at Accent, with responsibility for customer facing services, including tenancy and estates management, leasehold services and repairs and maintenance, to over 4700 homes.