Dear members,
Somehow, I’m already six weeks in and I’m so grateful for the wonderful welcome I’ve had as I take on the leadership of The Housing Forum into its next chapter. It has been great to hear how this fantastic, multidisciplinary organisation already delivers huge value to so many of you across the housing and construction professions but there is clearly so much untapped potential to have an even greater impact.
Many of you have shared insights and ideas on how The Housing Forum can enhance its offer and I am sincerely grateful for all the candid conversations so far that I am using to reshape our strategy and plans for the future. The Board have been immensely supportive already and I hope you will see over the next few months some positive changes to ensure that our programme of work responds to your needs as valued members and sponsors, raises the profile of the organisation and our members and ties more directly to helping government deliver effectively on their housing agenda.
Our small and dedicated team are working really hard, and we’ve already made some changes that you’ll start to see filter through. I’ve summarized these below but please don’t hesitate to contact me if you’d like to discuss. I really look forward to working with you all!
Yours sincerely,
Alex
alex.notay@housingforum.org.uk
Positive changes to our programme of work
1. We’ve given our events schedule a light refresh and renamed a few activities – the CEO lunches are now Leadership lunches, the Existing Stock Forum is now the Asset Management Series and the online conferences for our Councils Network are now shorter, sharper online seminars. We’re also aiming to offer even more regional events around the country. If you’re at all unclear, please just contact one of the team who can clarify and help you get registered for the right event.
2. We’ll be moving our National Conference to a bigger, better, riverside venue to enable us to offer an even better event on 20 October.
3. We’ll be raising our profile with more research, event and media partnerships throughout the year, making sure that we collaborate with other key organisations in the housing and construction space but also leading our own campaign. I want to ensure that we leverage our well-regarded policy insights and research output to have more press coverage as well as tangible impact.
4. We’ll be giving all our members more opportunities to shape our programme of work by establishing new member committees on policy, communications and the National Conference programme. These committees will meet via Teams and be a light time commitment but will be an opportunity for you to suggest themes, speakers or ideas to make this membership organisation work event better for you so we can truly be member-led. If you’d like to find out more before you volunteer, please drop me a line – alex.notay@housingforum.org.uk
5. We’ll be expanding the immensely successful Futures Network professional development programme to offer even more opportunities to current and future cohorts but also setting up an Alumni Network. More details to follow!
6. We’re refreshing our approach to sponsorship away from individual asks to offer a tiered range of packages with different benefits that can be tailored to your your organisation’s priorities. These will be officially launched in early March but please do contact me or George if you’d like to discuss any opportunities before then.