QUALITY HOUSING MATTERS

The Housing Forum’s Chief Executive Shelagh Grant explains why a quality home for all is still the organisation’s overriding mission statement 25 years on.

A shortfall in housing, the quality of new builds, rising costs, sustainable buildings – these topics never stray far from the headlines for one reason or another. Yet, headline grabbing stories or not, they are always areas of focus (amongst others) for The Housing Forum (THF).

Founded in 1999, THF was an initiative set up after a report published by John Egan entitled Rethinking Construction. The report called for a housingfocused forum that would bring together industry experts across sectors to help drive improvement in the quality of housing through collaboration, best practice and ideas. Fastforward 25 years and the Forum, with its 150 plus members, continues to thrive and drive forward these principles.

Under her leadership, chief executive Shelagh Grant has built a high-quality group of members spanning a multitude of specialisms. John Rowan and Partners are members and our very own managing director Mash Halai recently joined the board.

Keen to find out what the future holds for THF we sat down with Shelagh to gain an insight into her role and her vision for the organisation in 2024 and beyond.

A unique view

With a career in housing at local level for authorities in the Northeast and Cambridgeshire and the chair of Cross Keys Homes and a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Housing, joining THF seemed the next logical career step for Shelagh, who joined as chief executive in 2006. “Applying for the chief executive post was, for me, about wanting to improve outcomes on national housing issues,” explains Shelagh.

During her earlier career, Shelagh worked on big investment issues with a range of housing professionals, and high-level policy work with a plethora of trade bodies and organisations, all of which set her in good stead to lead the team, board and members at THF. “I made a lot of contacts and I’ve worked in so many different facets of housing that I felt I understood it and that’s really helped me in this role. I can speak fluently and confidently to senior people,” says Shelagh. And being able to bring together a broad spectrum of industry professionals is at the heart of the organisation. “The first principle of John Egan’s report was to create a body that represented the entire sector, which I think is the unique selling point of The Housing Forum,” says Shelagh. The Forum’s diverse membership, from both the public and private sector, turnover £24bn in the housing industry.

“The body includes consultants and architects and designers, but also large residential developers, contractor developers, housing associations, manufacturers and suppliers, particularly those interested in offsite manufacturing energy solutions. We feel confident our members represent the diverse industry as a whole and provide a unique view of the entire housing supply chain.”

Influence, interact and inform

Over the years, THF has grown significantly, providing a range of services to members on both best practice and policy. Shelagh has built a body of members that prides itself on forming collaborative partnerships and workable solutions in housing construction and regeneration. For example, cross-industry Forums regularly discuss successful housing approaches in major cities across the country, to highlight and share best practice.

She has also significantly grown the wide range of networks and services on offer, running over 30 events in 2023 alone and holding The Forum’s best attended national conference ever in October last year.

Enabling its members to openly share knowledge and expertise highlights The Housing Forum’s rich ethos of professional development, shared thought leadership and best practice. “To influence, interact and inform are really the main things that we do,” explains Shelagh. “One of our local authority members said only the other day that the reason they joined was to engage and to learn about the sector from others, especially considering regulations in building safety and quality.”

Collaborative partnerships are paving the way for change

Having a cohort of members spanning many specialisms and expertise means that The Housing Forum can run several networks and groups that focus on issues specific to the sector. The Futures Network is one example.

Now in its third year it aims to mentor and provide leadership training to a group of prospective future leaders from member organisations. Mash is a mentor on the Futures Network, and Rob Worster, senior employer’s agent / quantity surveyor at John Rowan and Partners, has joined this year’s cohort, too.

Participants also get to undertake vital research for THF’s membership in areas such as new home building and most recently a skills study, looking at skills for the future and what challenges there are.

Over the last year THF has strengthened its offering in terms of policy and public affairs, too, which has had a real impact, as Shelagh explains: “We’ve been able to run a working group which produced two reports looking at the planning system with input from our local councils network and other members. By doing a survey of 40 different local authorities we collated some very good practical and common-sense approaches to planning validation requirements. That report has got some good coverage and traction.

The reports are streamlining planning to build more homes and are helping drive a move to a planning statement approach, instead of checklists.”

“We’ve also been working with the board, principally on a manifesto for housing, which we’ve been developing over the last year. And we’ve now got a call to action, which includes key focus areas: increase housing supply, improve quality, safety and sustainability and ensure affordable housing and choice for all – a good outcome of 2023 to carry forward.”

A community approach is key to the future of housing

Moving forward, Shelagh believes the key to a powerful housing infrastructure is getting all communities participating: “It’s about getting all communities involved and taking the politics out of it. A population-based assessment of planned needs is, I believe, more realistic.

“I think our members will call for a proper discussion about housing as infrastructure. We feel it should be looked at as part of the national infrastructure with a forward funding pipeline that goes beyond 30 years to 50 years in the public sector.”

A quality home for all

But, above all, providing quality housing to people matters to Shelagh and remains the overriding vision and mission of THF: “If you look back 10 or 12 years, we were producing reports about quality in the housing sector then,” remarks Shelagh. “That’s been our mantra and remains so now – a quality home for all.

“I think if you have a career in housing, the one thing that really matters is being able to provide a quality home for somebody. Making sure that the houses and the environment, the community in which they’re placed, has a long-term future. It’s more important than anything else. It is the most important thing you can do. It’s why the work of The Housing Forum is so important.

“Having an industry that concentrates on building new homes and making existing ones as good as they can possibly be is absolutely vital. Let’s fund housing properly, let’s commit ourselves to it long term. It matters.”