New name - same fantastic Forum!
Recent meeting sees approval from members to change the Contractor Forum to Service Provider Forum, a natural move when you consider the breadth and wealth of expertise shared at our May meeting
In our last meeting in London, the membership approved an update to the name of the Forum. Going forward, we are now the NHMF Service Provider Forum which we feel is a better representation of our wide-reaching membership of those that deliver their specialist repairs, maintenance, consultancy, digital, retrofit, legal and materials’ services to the UK’s Housing sector. Our aim is to create closer working relationships between providers, clients and sub-providers and we work closely with the National Housing Maintenance Forum (NHMF) and client groups to promote best practice. We feel this name change makes us more inclusive and better supports us in meeting our goal, representing the best and shaping the future of our sector.
All change…..
The rebrand was only part of a jam-packed agenda for the meeting, which saw 50 people come together in London to focus and collaborate on the current challenges we’re facing as a sector. Regular fixtures on the day, Mike Turner, Forum Chairman, and SPF Committee Member, Paul Maghie, brought delegates up to speed about Forum developments and the fast growth of the new procurement framework, NHMF Frameworx. David Miller (Rand Associates) gave us updates on the new Schedule of Rates and Andrew Milross (Anthony Collins) spoke extensively and the implications of the new Procurement Legislation.
The main theme of the day was all about the challenge of decarbonising the UK’s housing stock and thanks to delegates and contributions from amongst others, Melissa Woodall (Wates), Alexandra Gates (Simply Certification), Rob Hutton (Equans), Ettan Bazil (Trade Innovations Group) we all left feeling inspired, informed and motivated.
We went granular via round table discussions on the Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund Wave 2.1 and asked what do we actually do now with this funding as a sector. How do we find suppliers to deliver these works within the timeframe? How do use technology like Ettan’s video triage solutions to help minimise the impact of the works on tenants’ lives? How do ensure pricing structures are correct and operational efficiencies adhered to?
As some of the feedback after the meeting below shows, we are hitting the mark when keeping things relevant and focusing on topics that really matter to our broad membership. Such collaboration will help us shape future topics of the meetings to ensure our members can help continue to shape the future of our sector.
“It was a very valuable day, great to see contractors and service providers coming together, willing to be open and share their insights.”
“It was fantastic to be invited to speak at today about improving efficiency in delivering responsive repairs by utilising video. Thank you to everyone that helped pull it together for me at short notice.”
“A very productive day. I found the discussion on retrofit of particular importance. It was great to engage with other service providers and share best practices. Retrofitting is becoming increasingly important, not only in reducing the cost of living for those most affected, but also reducing our environmental impact which is a responsibility we all share. Going forward it would be great to develop workshops to delve even deeper into this topic.
“So encouraged by the messages of collaboration and willingness to work together for a common goal.”
“Thank you so very much for inviting me along. Thoroughly enjoyed meeting everyone and very excited to see more collaboration.”
“My colleagueand I really enjoyed today's session and thought everybody embraced the open forum environment! It was great that our Head of Retrofit Technical Solutions at Equans, was able to attend and add some real value to the SHDF discussion.”
Find out more
If you want to find out more about the Service Provider Forum or get more details about the topics discussed in this meeting, please contact dawn.rush@m3h.co.uk
Or if you’d like to join the next meeting as a guest, online on the 20th of July 2023, please email imogen.bowen@m3h.co.uk
