“Let’s Keep Leading”: Housing Partnerships Come Together to Shape the North’s Future 

In the week where Andy Burnham MP made his first major leadership speech at the People’s History Museum in Manchester, housing partnerships from across the North came together for the NHC’s first Housing Partnerships Northern Conference to share learning and demonstrate how partnership working is delivering at scale. 

On Thursday 2nd July, NHC Chief Executive, Tracy Harrison opened the conference, setting out the progress made by partnerships, highlighting that they are now an established part of the housing system. She emphasised the importance of the role of housing partnerships in delivering regeneration and devolution across their regions. 

In her key remarks she highlighted how housing partnerships have involved from an innovative concept to a vital mechanism to help us move faster, align investment, solve problems collectively and ensure housing has a stronger voice in wider discussions around growth, health, skills, transport, net zero and regeneration. Tracy also emphasised the North has led the way in developing housing partnerships, noting that housing partnerships are increasingly being viewed as an example of effective collaboration by organisations and regions outside the North. 

She reflected: “At the Northern Housing Consortium, we’re proud champions of devolution because decisions are almost always better when they’re made by people who know their places, understand their communities and have real skin in the game…  

Housing Partnerships are a practical way of getting things done.  

They help us move faster, align investment, solve problems collectively and make sure housing has a stronger voice in wider conversations about growth, health, skills, transport, net zero and regeneration.” (full speech can be found here) 

Devolution was a consistent focus throughout the conference. Speakers highlighted the importance of a housing-led, place-based approach, aligning housing with infrastructure, transport and wider priorities to maximise funding. Strong governance and integrated settlements were identified as key to making this work in practice.  

Homes England reinforced the role of housing partnerships in delivery, highlighting their importance in building pipelines of new homes and supporting strategic place partnerships.  

Sessions also explored the role of local authorities within partnerships, including the challenges of balancing responsibilities as landlords and place-shapers. Partnerships were identified as a mechanism for coordinating activity across areas and enabling a more strategic approach to place.  

Workshops focused on delivery. In the North East, partners are already seeing the benefits of joint procurement, including cost savings, more efficient use of funding and the creation of local employment opportunities. Delegates identified leadership alignment, shared values and executive buy-in as critical to successful collaboration.  

Attendees also reflected on how to strengthen influence locally. Aligning with mayoral priorities and demonstrating delivery were seen as essential to building trust, with partnerships using their scale and collective voice to engage effectively.  

Skills and workforce pressures were a key issue, with significant vacancies across the construction sector. Partnerships are working with colleges and training providers to develop targeted pathways into employment, including new training academies and collaboration with further education.  

A key theme that came out strongly throughout the day was the importance of housing-led-regeneration and the work of the Renew inquiry as a strong example of what housing partnerships can achieve collectively. Referencing the inquiry in her key note speech, Tracy highlighted how the inquiry received evidence and insights from organisations responsible for around 1 million of the North’s 1.4 million social homes and more than 160 individual regeneration schemes and sites. The strength of this evidence coming from the willingness of housing partnerships, members and partners across the North to contribute their knowledge, expertise and experience.

The Renew report found that housing-led regeneration can unlock at least 500,000 good quality homes across the North of England, and is based on the evidence of  

The conference also highlighted the wider role of housing partnerships, including supporting health, preventing homelessness and working with communities. Examples included integrating housing into health systems, scaling up homelessness prevention approaches and responding to local challenges through long-term community engagement.  

Overall, the Housing Partnerships Northern Conference demonstrated the growing role of partnerships in coordinating delivery, influencing policy and responding collectively to shared challenges across the North. 

Tracy challenged delegates to continue building on the progress made so far:  

“The North has led the way so far. My challenge to all of us is simple. Let’s keep leading.”