Working Together to Prevent Homelessness Conference
1 March 2007: York Racecourse
Northern Housing Consortium
Tel.: 0191 566 1000
Changing the Face of Leadership in Housing
1 March 2007: Manchester
National Housing Federation
Tel.: 0870 010 7676
Gold Awards Homelessness Seminar
1 March 2007: London
Chartered Institute of Housing
Tel.: 024 7685 1772
The Future of Social Housing Seminar
5 March 2007: London
Housing Quality Network
Tel.: 01723 350099
Energy Efficiency Conference
6 March 2007: York Racecourse
Northern Housing Consortium
Tel.: 0191 566 1000
Chief Executives Conference & Exhibition 2007
6-7 March 2007: Birmingham
National Housing Federation
Tel.: 0870 010 7676
Managing Gas Safety Seminar
8 March 2007: London
Corgi
Tel.: 0870 401 2234
Housing Advice Conference & Exhibition
8 March 2007: London
Chartered Institute of Housing
Tel.: 024 7685 1772
CIH in Scotland Annual Conference & Exhibition
12-15 March 2007: Aberdeen
Chartered Institute of Housing in Scotland
Tel.: 0131 225 4544
Privacy and Confidentiality. The Challenge for Social Landlords
13 March 2007: London
National Housing Federation
Tel.: 0870 010 7676
Communications and Marketing Conference & Exhibition
15 March 2007: London
National Housing Federation
Tel.: 0870 010 7676
Low Cost Home Ownership Conference
20 March 2007: London
Capita Conferences
Tel.: 020 7808 5289
Housing Finance Conference & Exhibition 2007
21-23 March 2007: University of Warwick
Foremarke Exhibitions Ltd.
Tel.: 0208 877 8899
Leasehold Management Seminar
22 March 2007: London
Chartered Institute of Housing
Tel.: 024 7685 1772
New Venues for Housing Organisations Conference
22 March 2007: York Racecourse
Northern Housing Consortium
Tel.: 0191 566 1000
Private Rented Sector - The Way Forward Seminar
26 March 2007: London
Shelter
Tel.: 0844 515 1906
Managing Gas Safety Seminar
27 March 2007: Manchester
Corgi
Tel.: 0870 401 2234
Are You Being Served? Annual Conference of CIH Cymru
27-29 March 2007: Cardiff
CIH Cymru
Email: wales.events@cih.org
Please visit the Forthcoming Events section of this website for a comprehensive listing of events.
Disrepair and Conditions: The Legal Framework
13-14 March 2007: Manchester
15-16 March 2007: London
Homelessness: Update
2 March 2007: London
20 March 2007: York
Homelessness and Allocations Law: Advanced
7-8 March 2007: London
Housing Law: Update
6 March 2007: London
Recent Housing Law Developments (Two-hour briefing)
13 March 2007: London
Tackling Antisocial Behaviour and Harassment
1 March 2007: London
Tenancy Deposit Protection Schemes
22 March 2007: Manchester
28 March 2007: London
For further details, call Shelter Training on 0207 490 6720 or visit there website at www.shelter.org.uk/training.
NHMF Conference, 23 to 24 January 2007
Stratford upon Avon
James Tickell opened the conference with a look at the changes we can expect to impact on maintenance in the next year or two. The merger of the Housing Corporation with English Partnerships to form Communities England heralds a fundamental change in the way housing associations will be regulated. It will be less intrusive, but also a lot less cosy as it creates a level playing field between private contractors and housing associations. The successful associations are already turning themselves into social businesses, with a shift in emphasis away from the provision of property and towards the delivery of excellent services.
John Connaughton illustrated the rapid progress being made by consortia in driving down the costs of procurement with figures from GM Procure in Manchester, and 4 South Yorkshire. The greatest savings were being made on bathroom renewals. The National Change Agency had pump-primed the setting up of the first ten consortia with a little over £1 million in grant funding, and there were as many more working there way through the system. David Mosey described the different forms of contractual arrangements the consortia were developing, and how these dealt with EU regulations and the rights of leaseholders.
The conference was attended by 250 senior maintenance managers from housing associations and local authorities, with some of their contractors and consultants and about 25 exhibitors. They chose between half a dozen workshops in each of the four sessions, covering many aspects of a maintenance manager's job.
The main emphasis this year was on contract management, with sessions lead by lawyers and consultants looking at different forms of contract to suit modern methods of procurement, presentations by associations and local authorities on how they implemented new approaches to contracting, or reorganised their DLOs, and a critique from the Audit Commission on the benefits and pitfalls of partnering.
The NHMF ran seminars on developing release 6 of the NHF Schedule of Rates to keep it at the forefront of new methods of procurement. They also held their annual general meeting at which the committee is elected.
The Housing Corporation ran a seminar on Ecohomes XB and launched the sector study on Decent Homes. The Checkmate benchmarking club also held a seminar on its new on-line system. And there were practical sessions on dealing with asbestos, gas servicing, mobile working, asset management and the Housing Health and Safety Rating System.
The conference closed with advice from Dr Neil Jarrett from the Collaborative Working Centre: local authorities and housing associations have still got a long way to go in embracing the new concepts of partnering, and working together to derive real and quantifiable cost savings whilst transforming services to make them more sensitive to customer's needs.
The NHMF Maintenance Conference has more than doubled in size over the last two years, and is now established as a regular event in January each year. At the closing plenary, Dave Treanor thanked the maintenance practitioners who make up the NHMF committee for chairing the sessions and helping to set the agenda to ensure it addressed the practical concerns of those delivering maintenance services to the social housing sector.
This feedback report was submitted by Dave Treanor, NHMF Secretary and Managing Director of M3 Housing, who organised the event for the NHMF. If you have held a recent conference and would like a feedback report published, please contact us.