Matt Dicks previews this week’s TAI 2021 conference.
It’s been a profoundly challenging year for us all. But housing professionals in Wales have done a standout job in meeting the challenges of a global pandemic head on, working tirelessly to house more than 5,000 homeless people Wales in temporary or more permanent accommodation.
So, what have we learnt during that time – what did we get right and what did we get wrong? And perhaps more importantly what do we need to focus on now?
These are the questions that TAI 2021 will aim to answer – so this year, attendance at Wales’ biggest housing conference makes more sense than ever before.
We will hear from Julie James MS – the new Welsh government minister for climate change in her first major address to the sector since May’s elections.
It’s the first time any government in the UK has established a ministerial department to concentrate solely on addressing the climate emergency. It’s a huge ministry which includes housing – placing our sector firmly at the centre of Welsh Government plans for their green recovery.
So, come and hear what the minister has to say about her priorities and focus within her new brief.
But will the economic climate allow us to build our way out of this pandemic at the scale and pace we need to? Immediately following the minister, we have the Principality chief executive Julie Ann Haines to give us her thoughts…..and perhaps more importantly tell what she thinks will happen to the housing market and the appetite of lenders as we traverse our way back towards normality.
We also need to understand how we take our staff with us as organisations shift to a more agile working approach and you’ll also hear form Dr Hannah Holmes from the University of Cambridge about how digitisation will inform that process.
There’re inspirational speakers including Hannah Green from the Centre of Homelessness Impact, who will tell us about her very personal journey from childhood sexual abuse through PTSD and homelessness, through to using her lived experience to help others.
There are sessions on development in Wales with senior figures from Welsh Government, housing associations and private developers making up the panel, while the new chair of the Regulatory Board for Wales, Deep Sagar, will share his initial thoughts about the new regulatory agenda and framework emerging here.
You’ll also be able to dip into the lightning talks on retrofit, on tenant engagement on asset management and much much more but if you miss a session, don’t worry, you will be able to access every session at a later date when we send you the recording of the conference.
This year TAI is free and exclusive to CIH members so if you want to share in this learning and network experience on 16 & 17 June you will be find more details about the programme and how to attend here www.cih.org/events/tai-2021