Reflections on the Housing Today and Building the Future conferences

GIRI’s executive director Cliff Smith attended the Housing Today and Building The Future conferences. He shares his reflections of what we can learn from these events.

Housing Today conference

The Housing Today conference came shortly after the publication of the Grenfell Tower Inquiry’s final report. The safety and quality of social housing was a key focus on the conference, echoing the government’s calls for a “fair deal for housing” where “every person counts”. 

Paul Hackett, chief executive of Southern Housing, described the current housing system as dysfunctional and highlighted the human and economic consequences, with a need for balanced support from the government for housing associations. Amanda Newton from Rochdale Boroughwide Housing provided a stark example of this and the work that has been undertaken to improve the governance of new housing since the death of two-year-old Awaab Ishak from mould exposure in an RBH home. Rebuilding trust with tenants is fundamental to their recovery plan and early indications shows signs of success.

Panel discussions explored how the sector can deliver the new homes needed at pace, the need for every person to count, and what makes a decent home. All of these sessions pointed to the need for the right levels of government funding and a new business model with closer collaboration between the public and private sectors and residents to ensure that quality and sustainability are delivered.

Building The Future conference

Now in its second year, the Building The Future conference continues to explore radical and challenging ideas that could help transform the built environment.

Wates CEO Eoghan O’Lionard called for the sector to be more vocal in supporting the findings of the Grenfell Tower Inquiry and embrace the Building Safety Act as a catalyst for action. He welcomed the need to assess value not just lowest cost that will be driven by the new Procurement Act, and underscored the importance of sustainability. However, he decried the wafer-thin margins across the industry that are damaging investment. Overall, his outlook was optimistic and recognised the value that construction can bring to society with every £1 invested in construction leading to £3 of value to society.

This theme of investment for growth was echoed in panel discussions, with calls for government and private sector investment to deliver the net-zero agenda. An estimated investment of £64 billion is needed to deliver the government’s plans through the Green Building council. Collaboration between client, consultant, contractor and supply chain will be key to delivering this during construction and occupation. Examples of collaborations on sequestering carbon, use of AI, and biodiversity training schemes all demonstrate innovation across the sector.

On procurement, a culture shift from a transactional approach to a more collaborative approach to shared risks and returns was called for. On the safety front, the importance of competent professionals, training and development, and retention of skilled workforce were all highlighted as key success factors. Finally, on productivity, the speakers pointed to the importance of engaged leadership to drive change. The use of data to improve understanding and inform decision making was highlighted, while digitisation and off-site manufacture could bring tangible benefits to the sector.

As the Executive Director of GIRI, I was pleased to note how many of the speakers and panel members referred to benefits that would accrue from the error reduction approach advanced by GIRI. Productivity was seen as key to industry improvement as well as a culture change in terms of quality both of which underpin the GIRI message.