Conference afternoon agenda covers building for the future, frameworks and tenant engagement

The Government’s ambitious plans to build 1.5 million homes, the use of frameworks under the new Procurement Act and making tenant engagement meaningful were all on the agenda for the afternoon innovarium sessions at this year’s Echelon Conference.

Toby Fox, Founder of the 1.5m New Homes campaign chaired Building for the future but can we maintain it? which explored the Government’s ambitious plans to build 1.5 million homes, examining the challenges that come with such a colossal undertaking.

This session explored the critical questions surrounding the feasibility of the housebuilding programme, the skill set required to deliver it, and the long-term implications for the maintenance and sustainability of the new housing stock.

Challenges to building

Toby identified the top five challenges preventing local authorities from building more homes:

Viability
Funding
Building safety regulation
Market stability and investment confidence
Land availability and assembly

The panel, which comprised Rachael Williamson, Director of Policy, Communications and External Affairs, Chartered Institute of Housing, Robbie Tucker, Head of Bid Management, Hill and Anna Hwang, Chief Investment Officer, Placefirst, discussed which changes should be prioritised now to accelerate housing delivery.

They reviewed how policy is shaping up to tackle these challenges, acknowledging that most new homes built now will be occupied until at least 2080, and consideration needs to be given to futureproofing them.

The audience were asked to share their experiences and their thoughts on the barriers to building in this interactive session.

Strong tenant engagement

In More than a tick box: making tenant involvement matter Sonji Nurse, Member of the Housing Ombudsman Resident Panel, and Resident Board member at Hexagon Housing led a discussion exploring the impact that proactive consumer regulation is having on meaningful tenant engagement, looking at what still needs to be done.

The panel which also included Alison Inman OBE, Chair, Tpas, and Alan Tonkin, resident representative on Newlon’s Housing Trust’s Repair Service Procurement Panel, discussed how strong tenant engagement remains the exception rather than the norm, despite the fact that organisations who actively involve tenants perform better across the board and have higher levels of tenant satisfaction.

Sonji outlined how culture change is a fundamental part of getting housing providers to change the way that they view tenant engagement, explaining that tenants need to be involved from the earliest stages of the processes, not brought in halfway through when decisions have already been made.

Alan focused on subsidiarity and engaging with local communities to advocate for themselves and Alison brought in some learning from the recently launched Effective Tenant Engagement Procurement Toolkit, co-created by Echelon Consultancy and Tpas. The toolkit is designed to help organisations embed the tenant voice into procurement strategies, improve service quality and accountability, create trust and transparency between tenants, landlords, and contractors

Framework use under PA2023

Frameworks: Fact vs Fiction focused on best practice around framework use under the new Procurement Act, challenging some common misconceptions.

Andy Clorley, Head of Commercial Transactions, The Hyde Group, talked about how Hyde uses frameworks, and the key considerations that should be considered when deciding if frameworks are the right route for your organisation.

Kris Kelliher, Partner, Devonshires, talked through the legal process of using frameworks, covering notice requirements, open frameworks and Section 20 consultations.

Jessica John, Director, Pretium Frameworks wrapped up with some key facts as well as dispelling some common misconception. She explained that frameworks procured under PCR2015 are still valid for use under the new procurement regulations, as well as outlining the differences between them and those procured under PA2023.

The conference closed with a Q&A session, where delegates were able to put their questions to the expert panel of Mark London, Partner, Devonshires, Alison Inman, Chair, Tpas, Vlad Nedelcu, Chief Operating Officer, PiLON, Holly Watson, Associate Director of Safety Management, Frankham RMS, Andy Fry, Tpas Associate, and Luke Driscoll, Director of Asset Management & Sustainability, The Hyde Group.

Questions focused on topics including:

Whether Government funding primarily addresses the gap in housebuilding and lifecycle management.
If there’s a risk that new-build portfolios will need funding in 10 to 20 years if sector providers don’t focus ion long-term management.
Is there a political risk to BSR (given the backlash that has been seen from vested interest in the sector) and how can it be mitigated?
What’s the social housing sector’s next biggest risk