Thought leader interview with Louise Drew

Retrofitting – now that the Public Sector Decarbonisation Funding has been allocated, how will registered providers be utilising these grants? Where do the priorities lie, what success has been had to date and what unexpected challenges have arisen so far? Do the grants go far enough and what else needs to be done? And how is the sector coping with the retrofit skills gap? There is a shortage in training and expertise in the sector, what is being done to ensure we have the project managers, contractors and suppliers that can meet the needs of social housing providers looking to make all important energy saving alterations?

I’ll be chairing a panel discussion about designing and delivering homes for those with specialist housing needs. I’m really interested in how the panellist will tackle this topic and I’m interested to hear their viewpoints on whether the future housing ‘utopia’ would be where there is no such thing as ‘specialist housing needs’ and instead all our new homes are built to an accessible standard that is suitable for every stage of life.

Local authorities are pulling back on their housebuilding plans, resulting in greater shortfall of quality accommodation. After removing housing targets, how do you expect to meet the growing demand for housing?

Seeing people who we have only seen on screen for so many years face to face, leading to healthy discussions on topical issues such as net zero carbon, retrofitting and the challenges in housing supply.

Octavia Hill. Poverty disproportionately affects women and Octavia was a woman instrumental in fighting for better housing rights and the birth of social housing – she got stuff done! It would be so good to hear her thoughts on the housing crisis today and her take on a plan of action.

Being in the same room as other people provides opportunity to share best practice, enables collaboration, debate, and creativity. It intensifies the discussions, placing a wider emphasis on the complexities of the housing crisis and the delivery of housing supply while also factoring in other pressures such as the cost of living, material and skills shortages, as well as climate change and carbon targets.