#HousingScotland18 – SFHA Annual Conference a great success

Staff are back in the office today and HST resumes normal service following the SFHA Annual Conference on the 12th-13th of June in Glasgow.

The conference confidently explored current key issues that are affecting the housing sector, including development, homelessness, health and wellbeing, digital transformation and creating strong communities.

The Minister for Local Government and Housing Kevin Stewart MSP delivered a key note speech on the current housing landscape where he updated delegates on the First Minister’s announcement on additional investment in housing, as well as thanking the housing sector for their hard work and commitment.

The conference programme workshops were full of interesting discussion, debate and sharing of best practice. In particular, delegates enjoyed the ‘Lobby’ the Social Housing Sector workshop where delegates came along to be ‘lobbied’ by the housing spokespeople from each of the main political parties.

The speakers comprised:

• Cllr Peter Barrett
• Ben Macpherson MSP
• Pauline McNeill MSP
• Cllr Christy Mearns
• Graham Simpson MSP

Each shared their views on, and hopes for, the sector, views about what we do – as well as what they thought we could do better. 

Ken Gibb, Director of CaCHE and Deborah Smith from the Scottish Government led us in their thoughts around the 50,000 affordable homes target and what may happen after the target date of 2021, looking at how the housing sector can make the case for a longer-term investment in affordable housing and also explore some potential solutions that can help us deliver more homes of all tenures. 

On Day 2, Tony Stacey of South Yorkshire Housing, Andrew VanDoorn from HACT and Lesley Fraser from the Scottish Government shared their views on the difference housing associations can make to health and wellbeing and continued the debate that health and housing need to work closer together.

After lunch, Nick Atkin from Halton Housing, Dr Paul Fergus from Liverpool John Moores University and Sally Dyson at SCVO made a strong case for digital transformation and how this needs to continue to both save money and deliver the best possible service to tenants.

SFHA Head of Public Affairs Sarah Boyack said:

“There was a real energy at this year’s conference.  There were inspiring and informative speeches and some great illustrations of best practice from members.  Over the next few weeks we will be keen to capture the new ideas that came from the conference and to continue our work to raise awareness of the value of the work of SFHA members.”

“We will also provide briefings for members so that over the summer we can continue to make the case for investment in both new and existing homes by helping SFHA members to host visits by elected representatives so they can understand the transformative impact on tenants and the wider communities they live in.”

Presentations from this year’s conference will be available on the SFHA website from Monday.