Delegates Meet Their Match at Development Event
The SFHA and Scottish Government Development Matchmaking event was well attended with delegates enjoying lively discussion and sharing of best practice.
Turnout was high for yesterday’s Development Matchmaking event run by SFHA and the Scottish Government.
The event in Glasgow featured a number of interesting speakers and an enthusiastic question and answer session followed by a networking lunch to allow those looking to develop to meet those able to help them achieve this.
Following an introduction by SFHA’s chief executive, Mary Taylor, the first speaker was Caroline Dicks of the Housing Supply Division within the Scottish Government who outlined their commitment to seeing 50,000 affordable homes built during the course of this parliament, of which 35,000 will be social homes.
The next speaker was the Association of Local Authority Chief Housing Officers' (ALACHO) Tony Cain who said councils expected to build 10,000 homes by 2021. This is double the figure completed in the last five years so is an ambitious target. Mr Cain shared his confidence the 50,000 target would be reached by 2021.
Up next was John Livingstone of Williamsburgh Housing Association. He took the opportunity to discuss the development services Williamsburgh offer to other associations as well as detailing their own business plan and build proposals.
Funding played a big part in what Eildon’s John Duncan had to say during his address. He believes funding is a particular issue which requires real consideration in order to meet the Scottish Government’s target.
Our final speaker, Bill Banks of Kingdom Housing Association, gave a detailed account of their collaborative working within Fife. Kingdom offer development services to other local housing associations and locally they have a unique system of working together for their mutual benefit.
The lively question and answer session covered areas such as planning, infrastructure, grants and sharing of best practice.
SFHA looks forward to hearing about any ‘matches’ made during the working lunch.