It's safe to say we had a jam-packed few days at the NHMF Conference in January, a brilliant way to kick start 2025. With its focus on clarity in housing, there were so many really relevant plenary sessions delivered by a fantastic line-up of speakers, with lots of fantastic networking opportunities.

For Service Provider Forum members, lots of the most popular topics, like the implications of AI and the Procurement Act, saw in-depth coverage, and it was great to see members so actively engaged in the sessions, collaborating with so many client representatives giving their views and contributing to thought leadership in the sector.

NHMF Awards celebrated excellence in the sector

As always, the NHMF Awards ceremony was a night to remember. There was a slight change to the schedule, with the event happening on the night before the main conference, but it made absolutely no difference to the event! The awards are all about celebrating innovation, best practice, and the incredible impact of professionals across the UK’s social housing: it certainly delivered.

There were some outstanding projects and collaborations highlighted during the awards. Congratulations to all the winners and those shortlisted.

Detailed sessions from expert speakers

Across the two days of the Conference, we saw so many topics covered: whether in plenaries, in workshops, or breakout groups, no subject was left underdeveloped, and it was amazing to see client representatives sharing their viewpoints and thought leadership to the sector.

For sessions led by Service Provider Forum members, we saw Dean Wincott and Neel Bidessie expand upon their presentation at the last Forum meeting in their Raising Industry Standards: The Regulatory landscape impacting Skills, Training and Competence’ session, chaired by Shaun Mulloy. Their collaboration with Mears on Social Value, which included their Langley & Mears Volunteering Day, did a great job at highlighting thoughtful initiatives that not only help communities but improve the sector’s perception. Their closing remark, “Social Value should not be perceived as a cost but as an investment for the future,” was particularly powerful, and serves as a reminder that Social Value is more than just the tick-box exercise some perceive it to be, it has the power to change lives.

Social Value was also a hot topic in the Frameworx Lounge, with three donations made to housing providers in collaboration with service providers, from the Frameworx Social Value Fund, intended to support community projects.

The room was packed for ‘A Simple and Clear Guide to AI’, panelled by Shaun Lotay (Langley), Ettan Bazil (Help Me Fix), and Neal Forse (IoTSG). The panel discussed a wide range of potential improvements AI could make, including improving accessibility of complex materials, environmental monitoring and automatic reporting, and supporting operatives through video triage and diagnosing issues with properties. As always with AI, there were plenty of questions from the room, and it’s clear that we’ll be discussing this for a long time to come as it undoubtedly evolves.

Back in the Frameworx Lounge, we saw Forum favourite Lee Maskell of Faithorn Farrell Timms, known for his Procurement Drop-in sessions, close Day One with a Procurement Fringe session, alongside Paul Smith and Chair Neil Watts (Peabody). Rounding up key areas of the new legislation, the session saw a lot of audience engagement. FFT also sponsored drinks for the talk, so it was a great way to round off the first day.

Lee will be continuing to host these sessions for the next six months as we transition over to the new rules, so if you would like to be a part of the Drop-in sessions, please contact aimen.khalil@m3h.co.uk to register your interest.

Rounding of the conference was the final plenary, ‘Get clarity on how to be more effective and increase team productivity...’, led by Pete Wilkinson of Reclaro. High energy from the off, he emphasised three key points:

1) Focus hard on selecting the right people, appoint for passion and attitude and train for skill.

2) Make sure the basics are done well and don’t let the team get too clever.

3) Develop the desire for the pursuit of excellence.

Pete’s final slide, which said, ‘stop doing one thing today’, was a powerful reminder to focus on doing the jobs we need to do and not to get bogged down – a good lesson going forward.

NHMF Service Provider Forum – What's New?

I was excited to have my time on the stage too, sharing an update for the Forum, alongside Deputy Chair Amy Boothman and Andrew Burke, Consultant and Advisor to the NHMF who described us as “an invaluable resource for members” – thanks Andrew!

All in all, it was a brilliant conference, and I was delighted to see Service Provider Forum members widely represented, not only as attendees but also as speakers and sponsors.

We have a dedicated base of 60+ member organisations and a great year ahead, and I know we will continue to focus on highlighting best practice and innovation within the sector through our events this year:

• May 22 (in-person)
• July 17 (online)
• October 24 (in-person)

Be part of the conversation. Visit https://www.nhmf.co.uk/serviceproviderforum for more information on how to join the NHMF Service Provider Forum, or get in touch with our team: aimen.khalil@m3h.co.uk

The NHMF would love to hear your thoughts on the conference, so please take a moment to share your feedback and request your certificate of professional development here: https://tinyurl.com/nhmf2025

All workshop and plenary presentations are now available on the NHMF website via the conference timetable and can be found here: https://www.nhmf.co.uk/conference/timetable/

Congratulations to the NHMF team for yet another amazing conference. I’m sure I speak for everyone when I say: bring on 2026!