Conference Speakers

Alison Inman is the Chair of Tpas. She is a Past President of the Chartered Institute of Housing and former Chair of the National Federation of ALMOs. Alison currently sits on the boards of two housing associations and is vice-chair of the Labour Housing Group. She was a co-founder of SHOUT, the social housing campaign group and in 2017 received an OBE for services to social housing tenants.

Steven has extensive public procurement experience advising central government, local government, other contracting authorities and utilities at all stages of the procurement lifecycle, including designing procurement strategies, advising throughout the procurement process into contract management and in relation to procurement challenges.  Having spent time both in private practice and as general counsel in an innovative defence contractor, Steven has a unique procurement skillset and is able to appreciate the perspectives of both contracting authorities and suppliers.  Steven has a particular specialism in framework agreements having recently completed a PhD in public procurement law on this topic.  Steven is ranked in Chambers UK for public procurement law and has published various articles in leading public procurement journals and his research on frameworks is about to be published in a forthcoming book.  He is a member of the Procurement Lawyers Association and the prestigious Public Procurement Research Group at the University of Nottingham. 

John Wallace joined Clarion Housing Group as the Director of Procurement in May 2021, having previously worked as Procurement Director for the Metropolitan Thames Valley Housing Association. 

John began his career as a laboratory assistant before becoming a qualified Master Brewer. Having spent 10 years in brewing production, John moved onto various procurement roles in the industry prior to spending two years in the food industry working for one of the country’s leading chilled food producers. In 2006 he joined the NHS, being involved in the growth and development of two regional procurement organisations before joining Anchor in the role of Head of Procurement and Purchasing. 

John holds a Master of Business Administration (MBA) from Nottingham Business School, Nottingham Trent University, and is also a graduate of the Chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supply Management. 

Aman is a recognised industry leader having played a key role in transforming fire safety across the built environment. With a background as both a former fire and rescue service officer and a fire engineer, Aman combines extensive operational and technical expertise with a commitment to advancing fire safety through digital innovation and information management.

Between 2019 – 2023, Aman served as Deputy Chair of the Building Regulations Advisory Committee (BRAC), providing strategic guidance to the Secretary of State on building safety standards and regulations. In 2023, he was appointed as one of the inaugural members of the Building Safety Regulator’s Building Advisory Committee (BAC), where he currently leads the Approved Document B Technical Review and serves as Chair of the BAC Higher Risk Building Thematic Working Group. In this role, Aman is instrumental in implementing the new regulatory regime for higher-risk buildings and operationalising the “golden thread” of building information.

Aman is Chair of the British Standards Institution (BSI) committee FSH/0, where he oversees the strategic direction and ongoing development of all fire safety British Standards.

Aman was awarded with an MBE for his services to building and fire safety in the 2025 New Years Honour List.

As a Resident Board Member for Hexagon Housing Association, Sonji offers an invaluable blend of lived tenant experience and professional strategic insight. She is an elected member of the Performance Review, Repairs, and Strategic Core Groups, where her expertise in scrutiny ensures rigorous accountability through data analysis and benchmarking, challenging the status quo for better outcomes.   

Sonji is a seasoned strategic and change management professional who brings over 20 years of expertise to rigorously scrutinise and transform housing operations. Her unwavering commitment to authentic tenant engagement ensures that systemic shift and performance enhancement is firmly rooted in residents’ needs, delivering tangible and impactful change.  

Elly is Chief Operating Officer and Deputy Chief Executive at Peabody Trust responsible for repairs and maintenance, neighbourhood management, tenancy services, data and customer contact across Peabody’s property portfolio providing 108,000 homes to more than 200,000 residents.  Elly has over 25 years of experience in the housing sector, working her way up from supported housing officer to executive level roles. Elly is the President of the Chartered Institute of Housing, chairs the National Housing Federation Knowing our Homes group and is leading the London Coalition skills initiative.  

As Chief Investment Officer at Placefirst, Anna is part of the senior leadership team with over 20 years’ experience in the property sector. Anna has played an instrumental role in developing and executing Placefirst’s real estate strategy and previously held the role of Director of Operational Capital Markets at Savills. Anna supports on increasing the size of Placefirst’s residential portfolio, developing and executing the investment strategy, and overseeing the management of the investment portfolio. Prior to that Anna was an investment partner at Addington Capital which is a UK real estate investment & asset management company based in London with transactions to date of over £1bn. 

Rachael is director of policy, communications and external affairs at the Chartered Institute of Housing. She brings over two decades of experience across central government and the charity sector, with a strong track record in policy, external affairs, communications, campaigning, and member engagement. Prior to joining CIH, Rachael held senior roles at Citizens Advice and in central government, including the Cabinet Office and Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government. Rachael is a passionate advocate for the housing profession and plays an active role in shaping sector thought leadership. 

Toby founded the campaign 1.5M New Homes: The Local Government Challenge, creating video and podcast interviews with councils about what works, and what needs to change, to get more homes built (www.1-5m.co.uk). He is also partnerships director for the Housing and Development Network, supporting council-owned development companies (www.theHDN.co.uk). After 25 years managing a marketing agency, he now undertakes occasional consultancy to help councils and the development industry engage with each other to accelerate housing and regeneration projects. In his spare time, he cycles and is the co-founder of Velocity Magazine, focused on cycling and the built environment industry. 

Andy has been with Hyde for 11 years and is currently the Head of Commercial Transactions, overseeing the Procurement and Accounts Payable teams. He began his career at Deloitte, where he spent eight years as a Management Consultant specialising in supply chain and procurement for both public and private sector clients. His work included strategic sourcing, global cost reduction, and procurement organisational design. He also spent time on secondment at the London Olympics, delivering tenders for the Catering, Cleaning & Waste team. At Hyde, Andy is responsible for driving procurement strategy, commercial efficiency, and procurement regulatory compliance. 

Kris is a Partner in Devonshires’ Real Estate & Projects Group and specialises in public procurement, projects, and commercial contracts. Kris has extensive experience advising contracting authorities (including local authorities, registered housing providers, universities and collaborative procurement vehicles) on all aspects of public procurement law and practice and their obligations under the public procurement legislation.  This includes advice on the procedures to be followed, framework agreements, dynamic markets, in–house awards, and procurement consortia arrangements. Kris also provides advice on the consequences of non-compliance with the legislation and the risk mitigation strategies that can be adopted. 

Dr Rebecca Rees is a partner and Head of Public Procurement at Trowers and Hamlins. Rebecca is a leading national expert in public procurement law, consistently ranked as among the world’s leading government contracts lawyers (Who’s Who Legal).  Rebecca has significant experience in advising clients in the public, private and third sectors on Public Procurement (under both the previous Regulations and the new Procurement Act), subsidy control, projects, construction and building safety strategy issues. 

Robbie has been working in the housing sector for almost 20 years. Starting his career at Edinburgh Council’s DLO, he led its successful Charter Mark accreditation, and the customer has always been central to Robbie’s approach.  

Robbie is now at Hill, the top ten housebuilder. As Hill’s Head of Bid Management, he works with colleagues to ensure its proposals and commitments deliver the objectives of its local authority and housing association clients, partners and residents. 

Robbie has an MA from the University of Edinburgh and an MSc in Project and Enterprise Management from the Bartlett Faculty of the Built Environment, UCL.