Across the sector, we’re witnessing a transformation: income teams have moved from reactive, transactional processes to proactive, tenant-centric strategies built on data, empathy and smart technology. At the heart of this evolution is the ability to balance automation with human connection, delivering financial resilience while supporting tenant wellbeing.

The scale and speed of change needed to keep pace with technology, the ongoing cost of living crisis and rising tenant pressures is significant.

At this year’s Rent Income Excellence Network conference, we’ll explore five key themes crucial for continued innovation:

Digitalisation and automation

Housing organisations are embracing digital tools to boost efficiency, cut arrears and deliver more intuitive, tenant-friendly services. Explore some of the latest uses of new technology to help landlords and customers, including:

• Self-service portals to flexibly manage payments, arrears and benefits online
• Automated reminders and chatbots to streamline routine tasks, allowing staff to focus on complex, high-impact support
• AI and predictive modelling to help identify at-risk tenants before arrears occur.

Tenant support and financial inclusion

Income management is not just about collecting rent – it’s about supporting people. Embedded money advice services, hardship funds and welfare support teams are now standard practice. But we need to go further to identify and work with tenants in precarious financial situations.

Data-driven decision making

Real-time data is unlocking smarter, more targeted interventions – but how confident are we in its accuracy?

Dashboards are becoming essential tools to track arrears, tenant risk and payment behaviour. We will look at how integrating rent data with wider tenancy insights – repairs, complaints and more – offers a powerful 360° view that’s reshaping roles and responsibilities across income teams.

The human touch

As automation handles the admin, people skills are taking centre stage. The sector is rethinking the role of the traditional income officer. Will future income officers be tenancy sustainment specialists, financial inclusion advisors or hybrid housing professionals?

One thing’s clear: especially for tenants who need that extra support, the human connection will remain irreplaceable.

The future of payments

Tomorrow’s tenants won’t necessarily pay like today’s. We’ll explore payments industry innovations from digital wallets and Open Banking to Variable Recurring Payments (VRPs), a flexible, frictionless alternative to traditional direct debits.

Whether you are customer facing or shaping strategy, this year’s Rent Income Excellence Network conference is your chance to get ahead of the curve, connect with peers and help shape the future of income management – where innovation and empathy go hand in hand.

Why you should attend:

• Keep up to date on new and emerging innovation and use of technology
• Hear from colleagues on good practice in the sector on income management and tenancy sustainment
• Network with colleagues across the country to build your professional connections.

Essential for:

• Income/Rent managers and teams
• Tenancy sustainment managers and teams
• Financial inclusion staff
• Housing and employment staff
• Directors of Housing/Customer.

Chloe Fletcher, Director, HQN

Chloe has worked in the social housing sector for over 25 years, since her first role in housing management with JSS Pinnacle as a trainee housing officer. She completed a Masters in Housing with Professional Qualification at the London School of Economics and then moved into housing policy, working on behalf of the London boroughs, initially for London Housing Unit and then London Councils. She joined the National Federation of ALMOs (NFA) in 2007 working with members, government officials and wider housing stakeholders to develop NFA policy and support the ALMO movement. She brings her wide range of housing management and policy knowledge to HQN as director, working across the business and bringing her skills and experience to the whole social housing sector.

Jonathan Vaux, Non-Executive Director, Payments Innovation Forum and Head of Propositions & Partnerships, Thredd

Jonathan Vaux has over 30 years experience in the payments industry and now helps Thredd’s clients identify how to use best practices from innovators and disruptors to develop theirown innovative products and services. An Innovation and Payments enthusiast and evangelist, Jonathan has extensive experience in card payments, both issuing and acquiring, and has worked with fintechs, banks, merchants, acquirers across the world.

Prior to joining Thredd, Jonathan was GM for i2c in Europe and has run his own consulting business, Outside In-novation, helping clients gain a deeper understanding of how new technologies will impact their current business and influence their customers’ evolving needs and expectations. He was Executive Director, Innovation Partnerships for Visa in Europe and built and launched Visa’s London Innovation Centre to help revitalise and reposition Visa within London’s thriving fintech environment.

Jonathan has held a number of roles at Visa and American Express, including Commercial Director of V.me, Head of Processing, Head of Alternative Payments, and Head of Commercial Solutions. Jonathan holds a Law degree from University College London, and a Diploma in Marketing from the Chartered Institute of Marketing.

Mark Clipsham, Income Recovery Manager, Vico Homes

Mark leads income recovery at Vico Homes with a hands-on, customer-first approach. He’s passionate about helping tenants stay in their homes, focusing on income maximisation and making sure people know about and can access the full range of support the organisation offers.

Whether it’s working directly with customers or shaping the wider service offer, Mark’s priority is always tenancy sustainment. He brings practical experience, empathy, and a real drive to make a difference.

Jordan Farmer, Income Development Manager, Vico Homes

Jordan has been part of the housing sector for over 13 years, bringing energy, experience, and a real passion for making things work better. As Income Development Manager, he’s all about streamlining processes and finding smarter ways to do things—without ever losing sight of what matters most: the customer. Whether it’s automating systems or improving service delivery, Jordan’s focus is always on evolving the way his team works to meet changing needs. He’s a big believer in innovation with heart, and his work reflects that balance every day.

Tom O’Leary, Income Manager, Thanet District Council

Tom is a housing professional with over ten years’ experience in rent collection and resident engagement. He began his career at a large G15 housing association before joining Thanet District Council (TDC) in 2020. At Thanet DC, Tom has developed an arrears management approach rooted in early human contact and collaboration with residents.

Claire Donovan, Director, End Furniture Poverty & FRC Group

Claire Donovan is director at End Furniture Poverty, the campaigning arm of FRC Group, former Social Enterprise of the Year. A former journalist, Claire joined FRC Group as Communications Manager, before taking over the delivery of the End Furniture Poverty campaign, which raises awareness of the issue of Furniture Poverty; carries out research to highlight the consequences and reality of living in Furniture Poverty; and develops solutions to ensure that everyone has access to the essential furniture items that they need to participate in society and lead a secure life.  Claire works closely with social landlords across the UK, helping them to develop furnished tenancy schemes, and other types of furniture provision, to lift tenants out of furniture poverty.

Kirsty Ellis, Head of Operations (Support Services), Progress Housing Group

Kirsty is a passionate and results-driven operations leader with a strong track record of delivering high-impact housing and community initiatives. As Head of Operations for Support Services, she leads cross-functional teams to improve service delivery, drive innovation, and create meaningful opportunities for individuals and families.
With over 30 years of experience in housing operations, I’ve overseen transformational projects that enhance tenant experience, streamline processes, and support inclusive growth.
My work is grounded in values of equity, empowerment, and sustainability—ensuring that every decision contributes to stronger, more resilient communities.

Lynsey Sweeney, Managing Director, Communities that Work

Lynsey Sweeney is the Managing Director of Communities that Work. She has worked across housing, employment and skills for 15 years with Communities that Work and the National Housing Federation. Lynsey was a Director at a central London Further Education College and consulted for KPMG on their World Class Skills programme. Prior to this, she worked for VSO in China, Ethiopia and London.

Speaker to be confirmed, DWP

Mobysoft

Founded in 2003, Mobysoft provides data-based insight solutions to a wide range of social housing clients, supplying AI-based data analytics platforms that help landlords to improve their income-collection processes for the good of all involved. Mobysoft delivers two market-leading products RentSense and RepairSense which help keep tenants housed in a home they can enjoy and simultaneously improves rent collection for the long term good of the organisation.

Mobysoft are HQN’s longest serving partners to the Rental Income Network (RIEN). Mobysoft has worked with members over a series of events and strategies to sustain tenancies and protect revenues, including practical roadshows, targeted roundtables and conference involvement.

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.

Paypoint have partnered with HQN’s Rental Income Excellence Network to work with members and receive feedback from key decision makers around it’s industry leading solution multi-pay.

Paypoint have worked with HQN on a series of webinars and events around digitalising payments.

allpay

As a business, allpay prides itself on simplifying payments, positioning itself as a leading payments specialist in the UK. The company facilitates seamless collection and distribution of funds between organisations and their customers.

Established in 1994, allpay has consistently led the way in payment aggregation, processing over £9.4 billion annually for more than 900 public and private sector entities. With over three decades of experience, allpay now manages over 66.4 million transactions each year, offering a comprehensive bill payment solution that includes all major payment methods.

Driven by a commitment to innovation, allpay pioneered the introduction of prepaid cards within the public sector. From card design to printing and fulfilment, all processes are managed by the dedicated in-house team. The company proudly serves more than 500 housing associations (HAs) and arms-length management organisations (ALMOs), with 90% of the top 200 HAs in England and nearly 60% of all UK local authorities (LAs) choosing allpay for their bill payment services.

What distinguishes allpay is its steadfast dedication to security and compliance. The company upholds the highest standards of PCI DSS compliance, holds various ISO certifications, maintains Bacs-approved Bureau status and is accredited by Mastercard and Visa. In essence, allpay is the preferred payment supplier for the public sector, delivering reliability, security, and efficiency in every transaction.

allpay work with our members to better understand the financial needs of housing providers and professionals as partners of the main network and as members to the RIEN network.

Voicescape

Voicescape is a software business which has been developing technology solutions in the social housing sector for over 20 years, helping social landlords to connect with their communities through more effective customer engagement around the main touchpoints of the tenant-landlord relationship.

Using a blend of insight and technology the company’s services represent a unique offer in the sector; data science informs where to focus the effort and resource, behavioural science shapes the form of those interactions to deliver the greatest impact, and digital technology helps streamline communications to make sure contact with tenants is comprehensive, efficient, and effective.

Today Voicescape works with over 45 UK social landlords using automation to help add value to processes around income, wellbeing, building safety and customer voice.

Voicescape has four main solutions to support the social housing sector including automation services for rental collections, compliance on property maintenance, collecting tenant feedback and monitoring tenant wellbeing.

Voicescape are partnered with HQN’s rental income network to support members to learn more about how the world of data science can support improved tenant engagement in rent collections. Providing a new layer of depth and understanding about organisations and their tenants, Voicescape has been collaborating with members at a series of interactive events which have prompted staff to look at the way behavioural insight systems can help solve sector challenges.

10:30am Chair’s welcome and introductions

• Chloe Fletcher, Director, HQN

10:40am The future of payments – improving accessibility  

• Jonathan Vaux, Non-Executive Director, Payments Innovation Forum and Head of Propositions & Partnerships, Thredd

Jonathan Vaux from Thredd, an expert in the payment arena, will share his views on recent innovations in payments focused on financial inclusion and accessibility for those on low or no incomes. He will provide a thought-provoking keynote session on what could be achieved in the UK, what the current challenges are and what needs to change to allow the innovations in this area to come to market.

11:10am Automation and empathy

• Jordan Farmer, Income Development Manager, Vico Homes

• Mark Clipsham, Income Recovery Manager, Vico Homes

Jordan and Mark from Vico Homes will cover how they achieved their best ever arrears performance for 2024/25 using the automation with empathy approach. They will talk about combining the use of technology with home visits and their Housing Perks scheme that offers vouchers and other rewards that tie directly into tenants’ rent accounts.

11:40am Break

12:00pm Priorities for income management and how technology can help

• Mobysoft

• Paypoint

• allpay

• Voicescape

12:40pm Lunch and networking opportunity

1:40pm Welfare reform – where are we now?

• DWP

2:10pm The human touch in income collection

• Tom O’Leary, Income Manager, Thanet Council

Tom will share his experience in improving income collection as he worked to rebuild the income team after a significant structural change to service delivery. Working without automation and with limited resources he has trained officers and built up a successful team. He will reveal his top tips and advice for improving collection rates and rebuilding relationships.

2:40pm Break

3:00pm Tenancy sustainment – floor coverings and the new Decent Homes Standard

• Claire Donovan, Director, End Furniture Poverty & FRC Group

With the recent consultation on a new Decent Homes Standard looking at including floor coverings Claire Donovan from End Furniture Poverty will look at how floor coverings and furniture can fundamentally help tenancy sustainment.

3:30pm Tenancy sustainment – having an impact  

• Kirsty Ellis, Head of Operations (Support Services), Progress Housing Group

Kirsty Ellis from Progress Housing Group will talk delegates through their tenancy sustainment approach. Facing a high number of failed tenancies in the first 12-18months Progress changed the way they support new tenants. They now focus on the known risks for tenancy sustainment and the offer for new tenants. Kirsty will outline the practical measures they have undertaken and the savings they have made as well as share her top tips success based on what is working for them.

4:00pm Getting tenants into work – lessons from the Jobs Plus pilots

• Lynsey Sweeney, Managing Director, Communities that Work

In light of the government focus on getting disabled and sick people back into work, Lynsey Sweeney of Communities that Work will share the learning from the JobsPlus pilots in the UK. JobsPlus is a community-led employment scheme that aims to help people into work through on-site employment services, community support, and financial incentives. She will refer to some of the case studies and look at what others in the housing sector can replicate as we all seek to support as many tenants back to work as possible.

4:30pm Close

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.