As 2023 draws to a close, The Housing Forum would like to thank all of its members for contributing to a successful year.
This year has seen three housing ministers, and new legislation passed impacting building safety, procurement, social housing regulation, and planning. While building rates have continued at a steady rate, both opportunities and challenges are on the horizon looking to 2024.
Amongst this, The Housing Forum has been busy with a packed schedule of events, research, influencing and education.
Events
We have put on 30 events across the year, including Development Partnership Forums in Thamesmead, Coventry and Manchester, and webinars covering a range of topics from Decarbonisation to Later Living and Housing Asset Strategy.
Our National Conference saw a return to the Royal College of Physicians, featuring a keynote from Arcadis’ Simon Rawlinson and several interesting panels with topics and speakers from across the housing sector.
We also had two successful half-day conferences with our Councils Network in March and September.
Many thanks to everybody who spoke at, sponsored, and attended our events this year. Our 2024 events calendar is now live and open for booking, be sure to reserve your spot now!
Policy and Public Affairs
We have been engaging with policymakers across government over the last year, including meetings with the housing minister and shadow housing minister. We have pushed the issues that concern our members, including a letter to the Secretary of State about second staircases, and cross-sector letter on the infrastructure levy. We responded to a range of consultations on building safety, planning, older people’s housing, water efficiency, S106 and biodiversity.
Our planning working group has been busy and published two reports on Streamlining the planning system and Validation Requirements – identifying ways that we can improve the planning system to build more homes.
We also set out our Housing Solutions – the key ways in which we are calling on government to improve housing delivery, quality and the supply of affordable housing. The coming year is an election year, so we will build on these to put out a Manifesto for Housing, pushing housing up the political agenda to help deliver our ambition of a quality home for all.
This year has also seen the inauguration of a new media partnership with Housing Today, with mutual attendance of events and support in highlighting Housing Forum developments which are most of interest to the wider housing sector. A highlight of this was the attendance of our Chief Executive Shelagh Grant, at a roundtable at Housing Today Live: “How do we increase affordable housing supply against the odds?”
The Futures Network
After several month of research, our 2022/23 cohort published their Route Map for New Home Delivery, featuring a step-by-step breakdown of what is needed to deliver new homes. The report received much acclaim and press attention.
We have also welcomed a new cohort of future leaders to our 2023/24 Futures Network cohort, who will be focusing on two workstreams covering skills shortages and decarbonisation.
Team and board
This year has seen two new members elected to The Housing Forum board: Dean Wincott (Suppliers and Manufactures category) and Angela Wood (Housing Providers category
Two new members have also recently joined The Housing Forum team, with Executive Team Administrator Demi Sharp joining us in December 2022, and Communications Executive Alex Toal starting in October 2023.
Thank you to everybody who has contributed to this year’s success, we hope that all of our members have a restful break over the holiday season and we look forward to continuing to make the case of a Quality Home for All in 2024.
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