Board Leadership is a chance to debate the political, social and economic conditions around housing associations. After a transformative Spending Review, this event is the perfect forum to learn, network and plan on how to make the most of the opportunities with colleagues and experts.

Nowhere else will you find such clear direction on being an effective leader in housing during this ambitious period for social housing. Board members and chairs from across the country will attend Board Leaderhip. Join them to attend a diverse range of discussions, roundtables, explore the exhibition and book your spot onto the networking reception and dinner.

Why should you attend Board Leadership 2026?

Chairs Talking: Board Leadership will once again feature “Chair’s Talking”, exclusive closed-door sessions for the chairs of housing associations. Explore how others are taking on the challenges of the role.

New board members: Enhance your knowledge of the sector and the board role. Attend breakout sessions designed to get you familiar with key concepts in board leadership.

Smaller housing associations: Board Leadership is attended by the very largest and smallest housing providers. If you manage under 2000 homes, take advantage of reduced rate tickets.

Drinks reception and dinner: Digest day one of Board Leadership at our networking drinks reception and dinner. Tickets to the drinks and dinner are priced at £75 and must be purchased alongside your conference ticket.

What happened at Board Leadership 2025?

Board Leadership 2025 began with an exploration of the political landscape seven months after the General Election. Sonia Sodha from The Observer and Lord Gavin Barwell both spoke about social housing’s link to the growth agenda. Kate Henderson then explained how the sector has had the right signals from government ahead of the Spending Review.

We then shifted from politics to economics. Paul Johnson from the Institute of Fiscal Studies had a mixed view of the economic situation for the sector. Dhananjayan Sriskandarajah from the New Economics Foundation (NEF) spoke about the clear economic benefits to social housing.

The rest of Thursday morning and afternoon featured breakout sessions on AI, credit risk, sustainability and more. We then discussed accountability and responsibility on the mainstage with Carmen Simpson, resident of Phoenix Community Housing and Kevin Brady of Rochdale Boroughwide Housing.

Our keynote speech was delivered by Baroness Taylor of Stevenage. She set out the government's ambitions on affordable and social housing. She spoke about her personal passion for social housing and the value of frontline staff.

Day two began with an exploration of devolution and its impact for housing associations. Mike Emmerich from Torus and Cllr Arooj Shah spoke about their experience of devolution and the interplay of providers and local authorities. Jack Shaw of Labour Together said overall we are too centralised as a country.

Afterwards, we had a session with Fiona MacGregor from the Regulator of Social Housing. She spoke about the need for housing associations to have a consistent core strategy and know your risks, factoring in the costs of incoming policy. She advised us to be aware of the transparency standards and make sure we’re sharing our performance gradings with residents.

We had more breakout sessions that explored the details of inspections, cyber security and other day-to-day concerns for boards and chairs. We then gathered again after lunch to speak about building stronger communities. Our panel spoke about the important of building "strong local links" when responding to the different needs of residents across the country.