Kirsty Wark
Journalist

Kirsty Wark is one of the UK’s trailblazing female news journalists. She presented BBC’s Newsnight for 30 years, stepping down after the 2024 General Election. Her long career on Newsnight has seen her holding politicians and public figures to account with her formidable interviewing skills. She made her reputation as a journalist and producer on BBC Scotland, memorably reporting from the scene of the Lockerbie bombing, before joining BBC 2’s arts strand The Late Show as a presenter, moving on to Newsnight in 1993. Kirsty continued to span both arts and news/current affairs, hosting The Review Show for over a decade, as well as a range of BBC Arts series and documentaries. Over the years she has had memorable encounters with everyone from Margaret Thatcher to Madonna, Harold Pinter to Pete Doherty, Damian Hirst to George Clooney and the likes of Toni Morrison, Donna Tartt and Philip Roth. Kirsty hosts Radio 4’s long-running flagship series The Reunion, and regularly presents of Start the Week. She continues to present arts programmes on TV and Radio, cultural history series such as The Women Who Changed Modern Scotland and Panorama specials. Kirsty has won several major awards for her work including BAFTA Awards for Outstanding Contribution to Broadcasting, Journalist of the Year and Best Television Presenter. In 2024 she was honoured with a lifetime achievement award at the RTS Journalism Awards.

Akshita Lakhiwal
Net Zero Engagement, TPAS Cymru

As Net Zero Engagement Officer at TPAS Cymru, Akshita drives sustainable transformation in the housing sector. Drawing on her broadcast journalism background, she combines creative storytelling with strategic communication to promote net zero initiatives. Akshita is an expert in community engagement and innovation, focusing on creating meaningful impact through effective communication strategies that inspire sustainable action and positive change.

Caritas Charles
Senior Policy and Insight and Innovation Manager, Tpas

Caritas has worked in the sector for 24 years in numerous roles at a frontline and strategic level . In his current role he works with Tpas members in informing on and helping to shape national housing policy and ensuring that people who live in social housing have their voices heard. A scrutiny geek he also facilitates the National Scrutiny Club. Keen to bring new ideas in engagement to the sector Caritas has written a guide to using deliberative engagement methods and is currently looking at global engagement best practice.

“I am delighted to be asked again to be on the Advisory Panel for the Housing Community Summit. The inaugural event was a huge success demonstrating the passion, commitment and dedication that is out there in our sector and the amazing work we do when we all come together. 2024 set the bar high, I cant wait to see what we can put together for 2025.”

Debansu Das
Business Development Director, ZED Pods

Dee Kanco-Hammond
Head of risk, governance and reporting, St Mungos

Damaris Kanco-Hammond is a governance expert with extensive experience in tenant participation, regulatory compliance, and successful governance in the social housing sector.

Dr. Mercy Denedo
Associate Professor in Accounting, Durham University Business School

Dr. Mercy Denedo is an Associate Professor of Accounting at Durham University Business School. Her research focuses on social and environmental issues from a critical perspective. She has researched stigma in social housing, explored the intersectionality of stigma and its impact on the quality of life and the life chances of those living in social housing. In collaboration with the Stop Social Housing Stigma Campaign, Professor Amanze Ejiogu from Sheffield Hallam University, The Chartered Institute of Housing, TPAS, and YDC Consultants, have developed the Tackling the Stigma Journey Planner. This framework aims to assist housing providers in tackling the stigma in social housing.

Elaine Middleton
Head of partnerships, The Social Housing Roundtable

Elaine has spent the last 18 years working in the housing sector in a range of roles, regulators, and senior leadership teams, and understands the complexities, challenges and opportunities social housings brings. A key champion for change, improvement and innovation, she works with social housing organisations and sector partners to use customer feedback, insights and technologies to build strategies and action plans that stay true to an organisation's vision and purpose, while balancing the changing needs of both residents and regulators.

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.

Hazel Edwards
Head of Customer Voice and Value, The Wrekin Housing Group

Jan Taranczuk
Independent Consultant, National Social Housing Fire Strategy Group

Jez Sweetland
Project Director, Housing Festival and Bristol City Council

Jez has initiated and managed strategic development in a variety of settings. His previous positions include CEO of Guildhall Barrister’s Chambers, and CEO of a charitable national skills training organisation. He founded the Bristol Housing Festival in 2018 and believes collaboration is the key to lasting social development. Jez lives in Bristol with his wife, Joanna and his three children.

John Milner
Specialist consultant, Baily Garner

Karen Halford
Chief people officer, Places for People

Kevin Morgan
Tenant and chair of the service, performance, and customer experience committee, Wrekin Housing Group

Nick Griffiths
Programme Manager (Leasehold Management), Leicester City Council

Paul Smith
Director, Foundations

With over 30 years’ experience in housing, Paul works with local authorities, housing associations and central government to improve how home adaptations are delivered. He was part of the independent review of DFGs in 2018 and co-authored the national guidance published in 2022.

Paul leads several national initiatives to improve delivery and standards across the sector—including the Trusted Assessor programme, the DFG Quality Mark, and the Home Adaptations Installer Network.

He brings a practical, person-centred approach to system design, focused on speeding up delivery, reducing complexity, and supporting people to live well at home.

Bronagh D'Arcy
Chief operating officer, Tuath Housing

Jonathan Tan
Chief executive and founder, Greater Change

Trina Chakravarti
Director & member lead, Building Better & Healthy Homes Hub

Trina co-founded Building Better with four housing association colleagues during the National Housing Federation's Greenhouse programme in 2018. Building Better has since grown to become an alliance of 30 social housing providers committed to delivering the highest quality housing through MMC with aggregation and collaboration at its heart. Over 1,500 units have been assessed for viability under the Category 1 / modular framework and Category 2 / panelised DPS.

Jenny Danson
Chief executive, Healthy Homes Hub

With over 30 years of leadership experience, Jenny has held prominent roles including CEO, COO, Executive Director, and Programme Manager.

Jenny Danson’s impressive career spans various sectors, working with giants like BAA plc, Boots Opticians, Lovell, Ilke Homes, Kier, and Fortem, as well as numerous Councils and Housing Associations. Her strategic and operational prowess has consistently driven growth and innovation in every organisation she’s touched.

In 2017, Jenny founded Danery to provide executive coaching and consultancy to the housing sector and tech start-ups. Her passion for property innovation led to the launch of the Proptech Innovation Network in 2021, a groundbreaking initiative in social housing. Jenny has worked with and supported over 130 housing associations, local authorities and combined authorities over the last 20 years. Now, with the establishment of Healthy Homes Hub in 2024, Jenny aims to create a collaborative platform to promote healthier, more sustainable living environments. With her extensive expertise and industry connections, Jenny is set to make Healthy Homes Hub a beacon of change in social housing.

Chris Fleck
Chief technology & product officer, Mobysoft

Adam Knight-Markiegi
Director of Housing Evaluation, Verian