National Resident Involvement Conference 2024

Member engagement manager James Bryson reports from the NHC’s annual National Resident Involvement Conference in partnership with YD consultants 

 Now in its 15th year, this event brings together involved residents and engagement professionals from across the country. As always, there was a wide range of insight from sector leaders, best practice and opportunities for residents to get involved in the most important housing campaigns. 

The first of two days were hosted by Leann Hearn (CEO of Livv Housing and NHC board member) David O’Brien (social housing resident and Chair of Gateway Housing Group). Due to the pre-election period, a number of senior civil servants who had been expected to speak were unavailable.  

NHC Chair, Paul Fiddaman, stepped into the breech to deliver the opening keynote speech of the conference. Looking ahead to the General Election, Paul discussed what the sector wants from a new government, and most importantly, what we can expect. New house building targets, regeneration and rent settlements were all under the spotlight as the conference was teed up for the sessions that would follow. 

The first workshop of the conference was delivered by L&Q’s Fayann Simpson (Chair of Resident Services Board) and Neil Talbot (Director Research and Accountability). L&Q have been looking at how they can improve their relationships with residents and improve services and culture. Taking lessons from the voluntary sector and participatory democracy initiatives, they are building new structures, so the voice of customers has more ways of influencing organisational priorities. 

We also heard from Prima Group, Gateway Housing and MHS Group about some of the brilliant resident engagement work they have been proud to deliver over the last year. With insights on customer complaint handling, door knocking, and tenant satisfaction data delegates were able to take a number of ideas back to their own organisations. 

Day Two, hosted by Liz Cook (NHC Board Member) and Yaw Boateng (Chair, Croydon Residents Panel) was kicked off with Nic Bliss and Fiona Brown presenting on the Stop Social Housing Stigma (SSHS) campaign. In very exciting news SSHS has just launched as a membership organisation that anyone can join, resident, staff or contractor, and get involved in tackling the stigma people in social housing face. Cue a raft of messages in the chat as attendees became members on the spot! You can sign-up here.  

The final workshop of the conference was delivered by Frances Harkin (Head of Services at HACT) who has been working with Shelter to build an evidence base for a campaign to build more social homes. This session gave delegates a chance to feed their experiences of being a social housing resident into the wider research. This project has only just begun, and there are plenty more opportunities for residents to register their interest in taking part. Click here to find out more. 

It is more important than ever that residents have a say in how their landlord operates. As the sector moves to a more resident focused approach, conferences like Resident Involvement continue to be essential in equipping residents with the skills to shape their landlord’s service.    

You can watch the 2-day conference on-demand here.