Another year, another packed CIH annual housing conference

Another year, another Housing! This year was special. Not that it isn’t usually, but with the sector facing so many challenges at the moment, it was brilliant to see the passion and enthusiasm of speakers, delegates and exhibitors across the three days.

The CIH policy and practice team were busy across the festival chairing and speaking on numerous panels. The team’s masterclass sessions turned a spotlight on some of the biggest challenges facing housing professionals and highlighted some of the sector-leading work. Across the three days the policy team contributed to discussions on accommodation for refugees, the impact of poor housing conditions on children, public health, Homes England’s new strategy, domestic abuse, consumer regulation and the upcoming changes to professional accreditations. It’s impossible for any one person to be across every event across the conference, but here are my key takeaways from the sessions I made it to this year.

It’s to be expected that some of the most well attended sessions were for the speeches given by Housing Minister, Rachel Maclean MP, Shadow Housing Secretary, Lisa Nandy MP and Mayor of Greater Manchester, Andy Burnham. The headline from Nandy’s speech was the Labour’s party’s commitment to the Right to Buy (RTB) policy which garnered some negative reactions from the sector. This policy may seem somewhat counterproductive to the party’s overarching ambition of restoring social housing to the second largest tenure across England.

Burnham, a regular at this event, announced the introduction of a Good Landlord’s Charter for both private and social sector where ‘decent landlords’, will receive recognition, and landlords that do not maintain their properties will face action. As we have come to expect with Burnham, he still has one eye on the national picture, hinting at how he hopes ‘grassroots’ policymaking in Greater Manchester may find its way into the party’s manifesto in time for the general election.

Rachel Maclean’s speech at the end of the conference, followed an unapologetically emotional and personal speech by CIH president Lara Oyedele, committed to continued support for the sector but was short of any notable announcements. The biggest government news of the week was left to Homes England chief executive, Peter Denton, to talk through their new strategy and the breaking news that funding from the 2021-26 Affordable Homes Programme (AHP) can be used on replacement homes as part of estate regeneration.

As always, the Fringe stage hosted discussion and debate on some of the most important issues in housing and wider society. CIH Futures, the advisory board for young people working in housing, can always be relied upon for fascinating sessions. Their session on attracting the next generation of professional was timely and insightful as the sector adapts to the new rules around professionalisation, and their deep dive on gender roles within the sector will have made many pause for thought.

Towards the end of the conference, Guardian journalist and conference moderator, Gaby Hinsliff, asked a panel what the one thing is they would like to see introduced to fix the housing crisis. With the sheer number of ideas being engaged with across the conference it was perhaps a little reductive to try and boil it down into one single policy. Indeed, across the three days delegates had demonstrated countless solutions to the various challenges that we face. So maybe CIH director of policy and external affairs, James Prestwich, summed it up best by responding that the one thing needed to fix the housing crisis was the ‘political will’ from those in charge.