Social Housing

From Buying to Belonging: Rethinking the Purpose of Our Town Centres

Where do high streets sit in the modern world? They aren’t the shopping hub they used to be, with the dominance of online shopping. Too many high streets are falling into disuse, with shops opening and then falling under. Work needs to be done to restore high streets up and down the country. This will drive the economy, knit communities and support local businesses. We recently hosted The Restoring the High Street Conference 2025, which explored the ways in which we can restore high streets to be the community hubs they once were. One of the incredible speakers in attendance was Rowenna Davis, a councillor from Croydon Council, who delivered a compelling case study which we have summarised below. Rowenna believes that the key to restoring high streets is to transform them into social hubs, places where people can connect and rebuild a sense of community. Find out more below!

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Ending Youth Homelessness: The Role of Schools and Local Councils

Last year, around 118,000 young people presented themselves to their local authority in need of housing support. This is a worrying statistic. Yet it is one that with proactive steps, can be greatly reduced. It was one of the big topics at the recent National Homelessness Event 2026, which brought together industry experts and passionate speakers to explore how we can support the homeless and reduce the rate of people entering homelessness in the UK. It was a powerfully moving day, where great conversation, networking and learning took place. One of the stand out sessions was Stephen Elder’s case study, ‘Preventing Youth Homelessness Before It Happens – Working in Schools to Identify and Support Children at Risk’.

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Embedding Biodiversity and Community Into the Heart of Development: Lessons from The Land Trust

As the climate crisis deepens, sustainability has shifted from a niche concern to a core pillar of business strategy, Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG) is redefining how the UK thinks about land use, planning and community development. Yet while legislation and metrics can guide the what of environmental policy, it’s the people and organisations behind implementation that bring the how to life. BNG is an approach to development that makes sure that habitats for wildlife are left in a measurably better state than they were before the development. It requires developments to result in at least a 10% increase in biodiversity compared to the pre-development state. This can be achieved on-site, through green infrastructure, off-site or a combination of both. Importantly, BNG is a mandatory requirement for most planning permissions in England.

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Solidarity, Hope and Dignity: Refugee Action’s Vision for Refugee Protection

What does it really mean to give someone a fresh start? For Tim Naor Hilton, Chief Executive at Refugee Action, it begins with dignity, safety, and the chance to be seen as more than a statistic. Speaking at the Supporting Asylum Seekers and Refugees Conference 2025, Hilton laid bare the realities of the UK asylum […]

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The Asks Around Social Housing: Tackling the UK Housing Crisis

In the time it takes you to read this article (around 4 or 5 minutes), at least one household will become homeless in England. The struggles to stay afloat with rent, to find social housing and the issues of temporary accommodation impact hundreds of thousands of people in the UK daily. It costs local councils […]

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Supporting Disadvantaged Students: ‘IntoUniversity’ and the Challenges of getting into Higher Education

How can we truly level the playing field for disadvantaged students? At our Supporting Disadvantaged Students in Higher Education Conference, Dr Emily Magrath from IntoUniversity shared powerful stories and practical solutions for breaking cycles of disadvantage. From early intervention to local collaboration, her insights reveal what’s working, where challenges remain, and how universities, charities and […]

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Interview Series: Meet the Chair, Michael Sanders

We recently held the Local Government Technology Conference, in Westminster, London. It was an exciting day of learning, networking and interesting conversation. As most of our conferences are online, when we do get to meet people face-to-face, and host speakers in a physical space, it is a wonderful feeling. Seeing all of the conversations, the […]

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Leadership Interview Series: The Amber Foundation

I was lucky enough to sit down with Sarah Anderson, Head of Operations for the Amber Foundation last month. It’s clear that the Amber Foundation is much more than just a supported living environment, and is in fact more akin to a minisociety whereby individuals can turn their lives around supported by a team of dedicated staff.

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Creating User-led Customer Service Strategies

Creating consistent customer service is key for any housing association when building a trusting relationship with residents. In this video, Annemarie Roberts, Executive Director of Customer Engagement at MOAT discusses the importance of involving customers in developing services to ensure their needs are met and they are heard by the board.

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Developing a Service User-Informed Approach to Improve Customer Services

There were failures in 86% of complaints handled by the housing sector last year. In this video, Adrian Foster, Customer Engagement Manager at Aspire Housing discusses the importance of listening to customers when developing service improvements and customer services in housing associations.

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Empowering Victims of Anti-Social Behaviour and its Importance in Successful Case Management

Almost 2 million ASB reports went unattended by 34 police forces in England and Wales over 3 years between 2019 and 2021. In this video, ASB Help share some of the devastating impacts of antisocial behaviour case mismanagement to highlight how services can better support victims.

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Delivering Effective Antisocial Behaviour Services in Social Housing

The police recorded 1 milloin incidents of anti-social behaviour in the year ending December 2022. In this video, Mark Fitton, Community Safety Manager at ForHousing shares how the implementation of triage services and community safety officers has streamlined communications in anti-social behaviour cases and provided better support for service users.

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