Pooja Agrawal
Chief Executive Officer, Public Practice

Ruhena Ahmed
Deputy Director, Social Housing Quality and Residents, Social Housing Directorate, Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG)

Ruhena Ahmed is the Deputy Director for Social Housing Quality and Residents within the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government. Her responsibilities include the physical decency of social housing, the quality of social housing services, tenants voice, and redress. She has previously worked as a Senior Civil Servant at the Department for Work and Pensions, and the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.

Jess Asato MP
Member of Parliament for Lowestoft

Jess Asato is the Member of Parliament for Lowestoft, elected in 2024. At the end of last year, she was appointed VAWG Adviser to the Department of Health and Social Care. Prior to being elected, Jess was the Head of Policy and Public Affairs at the children’s charity Barnardo’s, worked for the domestic abuse charity SafeLives, and was a political advisor to Tessa Jowell. Jess currently is Chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) for Perpetrators of Domestic Abuse and is an Officer for the APPG for Domestic Violence and Abuse.

Peter Baffoe
Vice Chair and Resident, Peabody

Peter is the Director of South London Mission, a small charity based in the London Borough of Southwark and has over 20 years of experience working in community settings. In addition to his role at South London Mission, he serve as Chair of Governors at Rye Oak Primary School, a Trustee of the Maudsley Charity supporting mental health initiatives, and the Vice Chair at Peabody Housing Trust, where he also chairs the Resident Experience Committee. A passionate advocate for social justice, he hopes to help shape strategic decisions that impact housing and community wellbeing through both his day job and voluntary roles.

Anna Bishop
Chief Executive, South Liverpool Homes

Imogen Blood
Founder and Research Director, Imogen Blood and Associates

Selvin Brown MBE
Director, Net Zero Buildings - Domestic, Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ)

Selvin Brown joined the Cabinet Office 35 years ago and since then held a number of policy, strategic and corporate roles in government. From 2015 to 2020 he was on the board of the Health and Safety Executive as Director for Engagement and Policy, and he spent six months as Director for Policy and Engagement for PPE at the Department of Health and Social Care before taking his current role. He is the Director of Net Zero Buildings: Domestic at DESNZ, having been in the role since September 2020. He has held a number of charity positions, most recently as a NED for the Charity for Civil Servants. He is passionate about the Civil Service, Equality, Diversity and Inclusion; and is the Civil Service Deputy Race Champion.

David Cleary
Managing Director Housing, Corporate and Institutional Banking, Lloyds Banking Group

David is a Managing Director with responsibility for Lloyds Banking Group’s relationships with clients in the house building and social housing sectors. Having joined Lloyds Bank in 1989, David undertook numerous roles across Retail and Commercial Banking before joining the Capital Markets division in 2000. David was instrumental in the development of the Bank’s Capital Markets business in both the public and private debt markets in the UK, USA and Europe. In January 2017, David returned to relationship banking to create a new team with responsibility for UK Housing. David has a passion for sustainability and in 2021 became a Board director of Sustainability for Housing Ltd and joined the Executive Committee of NextGeneration, both of which focus upon developing sustainability reporting standards and frameworks in the rental and new build markets. He also supports Regeneration Brainery which focuses on the putting the ‘S’ in ESG.

Alan Collett
Chair, A2Dominion Group

Alan Collett is a Chartered Surveyor whose career covered all aspects of private sector housing, including investment, fund management, valuation and development. In 2012 he joined the Board of Hyde Housing, serving six years on the Investment and Development Committee and three as Chair. In 2021 he joined the Board of A2Dominion as Chair Designate and has been Chair since March 2022.

Andrew Cooper
Head of Funding and Social Value, Sovereign Network Group (SNG)

Andrew Cooper is Head of Funding and Social Value at Sovereign Network Group (SNG) where he leads on SNG’s approach to social value, developing partnerships and bringing external funding into communities. Andrew has been at SNG since 2020 and previously worked at Clarion. He has worked in the housing sector for over 15 years for both housing associations and local authorities. Andrew is a Professional Member of the CIH, a Fellow of the RSA and sits on the Business in the Community regional board for the South West.

Sam Dalton
Labour Party Councillor, London Bridge and West Bermondsey and Deputy Cabinet Member for Supported Housing

Sam Dalton led the development of Southwark's first Older People's Housing Strategy and Action Plan in his role as Deputy Cabinet Member for Supported Housing, published in February 2026. He was first elected as a councillor for London Bridge and West Bermondsey ward in 2022. Outside of Southwark Council, Sam has worked for a number of organisations on policy and campaigns around older people's housing and other forms of supported housing.

Alison Dean
Chief Executive, Great Places Housing Group

Alison joined Great Places as a graduate in 1997, beginning her career in customer involvement before progressing into regeneration and a range of housing management roles. With more than twenty five years’ experience in the housing sector, she has held numerous operational and leadership positions, always with a strong focus on delivering great services for customers. Prior to becoming Chief Executive of Great Places in 2024, Alison was Deputy Chief Executive, and led several large‑scale transformation programmes, embedding a culture where customer insight shapes service design and colleagues feel empowered to make a positive impact. Since becoming Chief Executive, Alison has overseen further significant progress across the organisation - including Great Places’ upgrade to a C1 regulatory grade. Alison is also a sponsor of the 20% Movement, a collaborative initiative led by Greater Manchester Housing Providers, to expand employment opportunities for people living in social housing. Its key goal is to ensure that by 2034, 20% of the workforce within participating organisations is made up of social housing residents and their families. Alongside her role at Great Places, Alison is also the Deputy Chair at Warrington Housing Association.

Trudi Elliott
Chair, Southern Housing

Helen Fisher
Director, Cladding, Safety Scheme, Homes England

Kelly Fowler
Chief Executive, Belong

Lord Michael Gove
Former Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities

Michael Gove is a seasoned public servant and journalist who shaped major reforms across education, justice, environment, housing, and local government during 14 years in UK Cabinet. He earned a reputation as a pragmatic reformer—“the minister who gets things done”—and led the Vote Leave campaign that secured the 2016 Brexit vote. Since standing down as London MP in 2024, Gove has served as Editor of The Spectator since October 2024 under new ownership. In 2025 he was elevated to the House of Lords as Baron Gove of Torry. He remains a leading voice on UK politics, education, governance, media transformation, and international affairs.

Rob Griffiths
Chief Executive Officer, Housemark

Paul Harris
Executive Director of Operations, Watford Community Housing

Paul brings a wealth of experience in leading customer services, operational performance and stakeholder engagement. He joined Curo in 2017, where he was the senior person accountable for complaint-handling and had responsibility for their compliance with the consumer standards. Paul has also been VP Corporate Affairs for Acorn Group, an African property management company, Group Director Customer Experience at Unite Students Group, and held roles at the South West Regional Development Agency, Laing O’Rourke Group and Royal Mail. Paul will also be Executive Director of Operations of the new organisation when we merge with Thrive Homes on 1 June 2026.

Cllr Charlie Hastie
Cabinet Member for Housing and Communities, West Northamptonshire Council (Reform UK)

Kate Henderson
Chief Executive, National Housing Federation

Kate is Chief Executive of the National Housing Federation (NHF), the voice of housing associations in England. Kate is passionate about tackling the housing crisis, inequality and climate change. She is a member of several government panels including the Rough Sleeping Advisory Panel and the Social Housing White Paper Expert Challenge Panel. Kate become a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences in 2021. Prior to joining the NHF in 2018, Kate was Chief Executive of the Town and Country Planning Association.

Afua Hirsh
Author, Documentary Maker, former Barrister

Elly Hoult
Chief Operating Officer and Deputy Chief Executive, Peabody Trust

Elly has over 22 years' experience in the housing sector, working her way up from supported housing officer to executive level roles. Elly was previously the Group Director, Assets and Sustainability at Notting Hill Genesis.  Her earlier roles were Programme Director, leading the integration programme for Notting Hill and Genesis, and Director of Business Improvement as well as a range of roles at Orbit and A2 Dominion.  Elly sits on the National Housing Federation’s Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Group and is a member of the Green Spaces Advisory Board.

John Johnston
Chief Executive and Chair, North East Housing Partnership, Bernicia

John has over 35 years’ experience of working in the social housing sector. He is passionate about the sector and the North East region, its people and potential. Prior to becoming Chief Executive John directed all operational services, successfully developing strategy and delivering significant improvements across a wide range of directorates. He successfully led stock transfer, merger and major regeneration initiatives at Bernicia. John is a member of a range of National and Regional representative, professional and trade organisations, notably he chairs the North of Tyne and Northumberland Committees of the North East England Chamber of Commerce and is the Vice Chair of the North East Housing Partnership (NEHP). He was pivotal in setting up the Housing Employment Network North East (HENNE) and continues to be instrumental in taking the partnership forward.

Katie Kelly
Chair, New Local

Laura Lazarus
Director of Home and Lifestyle Claims, Aviva

Steve Loveland
Head of Clann, Clúid

Kate Markey
Chief Executive, Nationwide Foundation

Kate Markey joined Nationwide Foundation as Chief Executive in early 2024, bringing extensive experience in social enterprise, social investment and impact‑led leadership. She previously spent more than five years as Chief Executive of London Community Foundation and began her career in journalism, including several years as Editor of The Big Issue North. Kate’s leadership is focused on addressing the UK’s housing crisis through long‑term, collaborative and sector‑wide change. Under her leadership, Nationwide Foundation has recently launched the Homes with Social Purpose Fund, supporting the creation of genuinely affordable homes delivering lasting social value, and the Empty Homes Fund, which brings long‑term empty properties back into use. Nationwide Foundation also continues to play a leading role in shaping and driving reform in the Private Rented Sector, using evidence, investment and partnership to help influence the future direction of housing policy and practice.

Clare McGonigle
Chief Executive, Framework

Professor Julienne Meyer CBE
Chair, Older People's Housing Taskforce

Julienne Meyer is a leading expert in aged care, renowned for her evidence-informed, relationship-centred, and appreciative approach to improving practice. In addition to her emerita role, she holds visiting professorships at University of Hertfordshire and Ulster University. Since retiring in 2019, she has continued to shape national policy, including chairing the Older People’s Housing Taskforce (2023–2024). She is Founder and Trustee of My Home Life Charity and serves as an advisor to key care organisations. Internationally recognised, she has also held visiting professorships in Australia and the United States and was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 2015 for services to nursing and older people.

Clare Miller
Chief Executive, Clarion Housing Group

Clare has been the Group Chief Executive since 2018. She is a chartered accountant with almost 30 years’ experience in the housing sector. Clare joined the Housing Corporation in 1992 as a financial regulator. Over the next 18 years progressed to become its Director of Regulation. She then became an Executive Director at the Tenant Services Authority, with responsibility for housing association regulation. In 2010 Clare joined Affinity Sutton as Group Director of Governance and Compliance. She took up the same role at Clarion in 2016, before taking on her current role two years later.

Hashi Mohamed
Barrister, Broadcaster and Author

Bruce Moore
Chief Executive, Housing 21

Bruce joined Housing 21 as Chief Executive in 2013. Before that, Bruce was Chief Executive for Hanover Housing Group and had previously been Chief Executive of Wolverhampton Homes and Deputy Chief Executive of Anchor Trust. Bruce’s early career was as an in-house lawyer and he is a qualified solicitor, but he has spent more than 20 years leading change and seeking to improve the provision of housing and care for older people. Bruce has served and continues to serve as a board member for a number of housing organisations, charities and a local authority owned care company. He completed a PhD considering the differences in attitudes and expectation of the governance role of boards of housing associations in 2017 and then undertook a further PhD on the priorities and preferences of residents of Retirement and Extra Care Housing that he completed in early 2021.

Steve Partridge
Director, Head of Housing Consultancy, Affordable Housing, Savills

Steve is a senior leader and highly regarded national expert in UK housing finance with nearly 30 years’ experience in the public and private housing sectors in business planning, investment appraisal, financing and the development of new homes. Steve leads Savills’ work on building funding and delivery capacity with UK-based local authorities and housing associations, to help deliver new homes at scale, and also specialises in working to bring new sources of private investment and housing providers together to introduce new and innovative ways to bring private finance into the development of affordable housing. He leads work on setting up new housing providers, raising capital for investment into non-profit and for-profit housing providers, and helped traditional housing providers access these new sources of capital.

Stephen Peacock
Chief Executive, West of England Combined Authority

Stephen Peacock has a commercial background in international energy and technology allied with experience as a leader in the public sector. A former partner with a major professional services firm, Stephen was Chief Executive of Bristol City Council where his achievements include the creation of the award-winning City Leap public-private partnership and a resurgence of housebuilding. As Chief Executive of the West of England Mayoral Combined Authority Stephen is responsible for over £1bn of investment in initiatives to drive sustainable inclusive growth across the most productive and fast-growing UK city region outside London. Priorities include housing, strategic transport, net zero and nature recovery, inward investment and support for innovation and skills.

Mark Pragnell
Chair, Rural Coalition

An economist with over 30 years’ experience, Mark advises businesses, trade associations, NGOs and the public sector. He has been a strong advocate for social and affordable housing providing the evidence that has underpinned many of the sector’s national policy campaigns. He is also a keen supporter of rural communities and works to ensure government policy properly reflects their needs and maximises their opportunities. Mark is chair of The Rural Coalition, which comprises twelve national organisations who subscribe to a vision for a living and working countryside in England, in addition to his roles as chair of English Rural Housing Association and managing director of Pragmatix Advisory, an economics, strategy and policy research consultancy.

Charlie Pugsley
Acting Chief Executive Officer, Building Safety Regulator

Amy Rees
Chief Executive, Homes England

Amy Rees became Chief Executive of Homes England in September 2025. Prior to joining Homes England, Amy served as Interim Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of Justice, where she oversaw the full breadth of the department’s responsibilities — including criminal justice, prison and probation services, civil, family and criminal courts, legal services, and constitutional policy. Before that, Amy was Chief Executive of HM Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS) for nearly three years. As HMPPS CEO and Accounting Officer, she provided strategic direction and operational leadership to the Agency, working closely with partners across government and the justice system to enforce court orders, protect the public, and reduce reoffending throughout England and Wales.

Steve Rotheram
Metro Mayor, Liverpool City Region

Steve began his political career when he was elected to serve as a councillor in 2002, representing Fazakerley ward on Liverpool City Council and held the ceremonial title of Lord Mayor of Liverpool through the city’s European Capital of Culture year in 2008. In 2010, Steve was elected as the Member of Parliament for the Liverpool Walton constituency. While in Westminster, he led campaigns for justice for the Hillsborough families; in support of blacklisted workers; for compensation for those suffering from mesothelioma and asbestosis; and to change the law on the use of old tyres on buses and coaches. In 2017, Steve was elected as the first ever Liverpool City Region Mayor, representing 1.6m people across the boroughs of Halton, Knowsley, Liverpool, Sefton, St Helens and the Wirral and was subsequently re-elected in 2021. In 2024, Steve was elected for a third term as Mayor. Steve has pledged to return to council housebuilding at scale, to increase foreign direct investment (FDI) into the region, to build three new train stations and to launch a free pilot of artificial intelligence (AI) in local schools. He has also revised the region’s net zero target to 2035 – the most ambitious target for a city region in the country.

Charmaine Simei
Chief Executive, Tuntum Housing

Charmaine has been working in social housing and related fields for some 30 years. Currently in role as CEO at Tuntum Housing based in Nottingham, a BME led organisation; Charmaine has enjoyed a varied and successful career working with some of the most marginalised and vulnerable communities within society.In April 2021, she was voted 'Professional of the Year' at the Women in Housing Awards 2021, primarily for establishing the Community Investment arm at Longhurst Housing Association which had delivered over 18,000 support interventions at the time of her departure. Charmaine became the CEO of Tuntum Housing in October 2023 and has supported the organisation to regain its G1 rating. A keen advocate for social justice and social mobility, Charmaine has previously been a mentor with the Housing Diversity Network and sat on a number of steering Groups including HACTs Racial Equality Group. She has recently stood down as a board member for Communities that Work and currently serves as an executive member of BME national.

Gavin Smart
Chief Executive, Chartered Institute of Housing

Prior to becoming CEO Gavin served as both Deputy CEO and, before that, Director of Policy and Practice at the CIH. Before joining CIH Gavin worked at the National Housing Federation (NHF), latterly as Assistant Director for Research and Futures where he led the NHF’s research and analysis function, it’s future facing thinking and it’s policy work on finance and government investment. Gavin joined the NHF from a spell working for the UK civil service commissioning research and analysis into a variety of housing policy areas. He began his career as an academic researcher at the School for Policy Studies at the University of Bristol.

Alistair Smyth
Director of Policy and Research, National Housing Federation

Alistair has worked in the social housing sector for the last 16 years in a wide range of roles and organisations including a previous spell at the NHF from 2014 to 2017. Prior to that, he worked as a consultant on a range of neighbourhood and community empowerment projects. He also spent three years working in a customer-facing role as a Neighbourhood Manager and as Assistant Head of Neighbourhoods for Peabody. He is currently the Vice Chair of the Chartered Institute of Housing’s Policy Advisory Committee.

Dr Lígia Teixeira
Chief Executive Officer, Centre for Homelessness Impact

Dr Lígia Teixeira is the Founding Chief Executive of the Centre for Homelessness Impact. She works with governments, mayors and housing leaders in the UK and internationally to help homelessness systems move from crisis response to prevention using better evidence, data and rigorous testing of what works.

Claire Townson
Chief Executive Officer, Broadacres

Claire is an experienced senior leader with over 30 years’ experience across the social housing, charitable and commercial sectors. As Chief Executive of Broadacres, Claire provides strategic leadership for the organisation, with overall responsibility for the delivery of excellent services for customers, and for promoting a positive culture for colleagues. Claire is passionate about delivering rural affordable homes across North Yorkshire and ensuring that the services we provide are meeting the needs of our customers and the communities we serve so that they can thrive and flourish.

Eddie Tuttle
Director of Policy, External Affairs and Research, Chartered Institute of Building (CIOB)

Jonathan Walters
Chief Executive, Regulator of Social Housing

Having previously been at Ernst and Young working in social housing consultancy, Jonathan has been at the Regulator since 2004. He has worked across the organisation and has extensive experience in dealing with funders, government and housing associations.

Martin Warhurst
Chief Executive, Habinteg Housing Association

Martin has over 24 years of experience within the social housing sector, with a particular passion for accessible, lifetime homes in inclusive communities. Martin is currently the Chief Finance Officer at Habinteg Housing Association. Previously, he was the Executive Director of Resources at Wakefield District Housing Association, Chief Executive of Martin House Children’s Hospice and prior to that, an Executive Director at Isos Housing Group (now Karbon Homes) where he was Managing Director of Cestria Community Housing Association following several years as Director of Finance and Corporate Services. He is a Chartered Accountant and has worked within the social housing audit teams at KPMG and RSM Robson Rhodes, who later merged with Grant Thornton. Martin has demonstrated his commitment to the not-for-profit sector by holding several voluntary audit committee, trustee and board positions. Currently, he is Chair of the Audit and Risk Committee at Salix Homes. In the past, Martin served full terms of office as a Board Member and Chair of the Audit Committee at Leeds Federated Housing Association and Broadacres Housing Association.

Kieron White
Co-Founder and Chief Executive, Leading AI

Kieron co-founded Leading AI Ltd to bring the transformative power of AI to the most important public service challenges. Leading AI now partners with over 50 organisations in Housing, Local Government, and Education. Previously, Kieron worked as a management consultant on public sector policy programmes with the DfE and DCLG, gaining insight into complex sector challenges. He is now focused on demonstrating how AI can help address these issues.