Learning from the Housing Community Summit

Housemark shared initial findings and themes from the national survey to help redesign housing for the next decade at the Housing Community Summit on 8-9 September.

The four broad themes were:
1. Connected communities
Housemark shared examples of housing providers working more closely with the health sector and other partners, including work around healthy homes. There was a strong sense that housing has an important role to play in wider community wellbeing.

2. Human-centred technology
Findings showed that using technology could reduce administration and give colleagues more time to spend with customers, rather than technology becoming an end in itself. There was also a strong message around better integration of systems and making better use of data.

3. Specialist services, local delivery and different roles
The discussion wasn’t about choosing between generic or specialist housing roles. It was acknowledged that generic roles can provide strong customer relationships and satisfaction, while specialist roles can bring greater expertise and productivity. The emerging thinking was about coordinating services around what individual customers need, with named contacts and access to the right specialist support when required.

4. A professional workforce built for the future
There was a strong focus on designing roles around the reality of the work, investing in colleagues and recognising wellbeing as part of the infrastructure needed to deliver good services. Trauma-informed approaches were also highlighted. A key message was that if we want to retain people, we need to invest in training and support for them.

The final report will be published in Autumn/Winter 2026. Once published, we'll share more information on this page.