Emma Kiddle
Head of Communications and Marketing, Settle

Emma is Head of Communications and Marketing at settle. The organisation supports over 23,000 residents in more than 10,000 homes across Hertfordshire, Bedfordshire, Buckinghamshire and South Cambridgeshire, and Emma is responsible for all resident, colleague and stakeholder communications. Prior to joining settle, Emma worked as Head of Marketing Communications at Young Lives vs Cancer, the UK’s leading charity for young cancer patients and their families and led high profile campaigns in central government departments. Emma is co-chair of the National Housing Federation’s National Communications and Influencing Group, and a Chartered Member of the Chartered Institute of Public Relations.

Matt Rhodes
Director of Communications and Public Affairs, The Hyde Group

Matt is a communications and public affairs leader, with a background across party politics, local government, and social housing. As Director of Communications and Public Affairs for The Hyde Group, a not-for-profit provider of 50,000 affordable homes across London and the South East, he works with national and trade media, builds relationships to influence stakeholders, and develops the group’s policy positions. During his time at MTVH, another social housing provider, Matt coordinated the activities of the G15 group of leading housing associations that collectively provide over 770,000 homes across the country, working across the political spectrum and with senior government officials. Before moving into social housing, Matt worked for the Labour Party in various roles over more than 12 years.

Sharon Amesu
Director, SA Consulting

Sharon Amesu is a multi award winning Professional Speaker who started her career in Law. She was a Criminal Barrister for 16 years with a successful practice across the Northwest of England. Sharon now runs a Consultancy that supports organisations with Leadership Development and Diversity and Inclusion initiatives. As a Professional Speaker, Sharon is invited to speak to audiences around the Globe on Women in Leadership and Inclusive Leadership.

Sharon is a Founding Fellow of the Society of Leadership Fellows, St George’s House, Windsor Castle, an Honorary Industry Fellow of the University of Salford Business School and former Branch Chair for the Institute of Directors. Sharon was recently invited to join the Northwest Business Leadership Team and is a Board member of The Hallé Orchestra. A lifelong learner, Sharon has recently completed Advanced Studies in Executive Coaching with The University of Cambridge. She has also recently become a published instructor on the LinkedIn platform.

Theo Bertram
Director, Social Market Foundation

Theo Bertram studied at the University of Cambridge before completing a PhD on Samuel Beckett at the University of Bristol. After leaving Downing Street in 2010, Bertram worked as Head of Public Affairs at Telefonica O2 UK before joining Google, where he worked on a range of UK and European public policy issues for eight years. In 2019, he joined TikTok, where he was Vice President for Public Policy and Government Relations, focused on European and global technology public policy issues and engaging with global institutions on behalf of TikTok.

He started his career in politics as a regional organiser for the Labour Party and rose through the ranks to become a Special Adviser in Downing Street to Prime Minister Tony Blair in 2006. He was one of the few advisers to serve both Blair and Gordon Brown, becoming Head of Research and Information at No. 10.

Anita Boateng
Partner, Portland & Former Government Special Adviser

Molly Boreham
Head of Communications and Strategy, Tower Hamlets Community Housing

Billy Brown
Board Member, Chair of our Resident Strategy Group, TPAS, Southern Housing

Billy is a tenant with Southern Housing, one of the largest housing providers in the country, with over 77,000 homes across London, the Southeast, the Isle of Wight, and the Midlands. Billy Chairs their Resident Strategy Group and is a Board member of TPAS.

He also manages the UK and IE supply chain team for Bosch Siemens Hausgeräte, Responsible for the delivery of approximately 3m units of major and small domestic appliances to around 3k customers annually across four household brands, contributing to an annual turnover of €15.9 billion.

“The social housing movement and business model is a force for good and something truly inspiring to me. I am passionate about preserving and championing the cause for future generations and closing the gap in standards and opportunities between people on lower incomes and the disparity between the social and private sectors, which is why I want to be an advocate for the sector and the people inside it.”

James Calnan
Communications Manager, Customer and Communities, Eastlight Community Homes

James is Communications Manager for customers and communities at Eastlight Community Homes. James also leads Eastlight’s Resident Engagement Team.

Tristan Carlyon
Head of Research and Analysis, National Housing Federation

Tristan has worked at the National Housing Federation for ten years, following ten years in the Research Team at Shelter. His professional interests include widening access to data, and embedding an evidence-based approach across the sector, both in terms of influencing and service delivery.

Jon Cocker
Chief Information Officer, Platform Housing

Amanda Coleman
Crisis Communication Expert

Amanda is a crisis communication specialist and the director and founder of crisis communication consultancy Amanda Coleman Communication Ltd. Based in the UK, she has more than 25 years’ experience in crisis and emergency communication.

She is the author of Crisis Communication Strategies published in May 2020 with a second edition published in March 2023 by Kogan Page, and Everyday Communication Strategies published in November 2022. Her third book about Strategic Reputation Management will be published in November 2024.

Amanda led the law enforcement communication response to the Manchester Arena terrorist attack in 2017. Now, Amanda provides consultancy support to public and private sector organisations facing challenging times, as well as training individuals and teams to more effectively communicate in a crisis.

Amanda began her working life as a journalist. She is a Chartered PR practitioner as well as a Fellow of both the Chartered Institute of Public Relations and the Public Relations and Communication Association. She is an advisor for the Resilience Advisors Network, a senior associate of the Centre for Crisis and Risk Communication and the Chair of the UK’s Emergency Planning Society Communication Professional Working Group.

Pippa Crerar
Political Editor, The Guardian

Lauren Dearden
Head of External Affairs & Communications, Onward Homes

Lauren is the Head of External Affairs & Communications at Onward, one of the largest housing associations in the North West, where she oversees a team that covers internal and external communication, external affairs and design. Prior to joining Onward, Lauren led a team at a national public affairs agency working with clients across the housing sector.

Lucy Dixon
Head of External Affairs, Karbon Homes

Lucy leads on public affairs and communications for the North East Housing Partnership. She has more than 20 years’ experience in communications and public affairs, and has worked across the voluntary and public sector including RNIB, the British Red Cross and Tyne and Wear Fire and Rescue Service.

Lucy Grove
Director of Communications and Engagement, Coin Street

Lucy Grove has two decades’ experience in communications, influencing and policy roles. Lucy joined Coin Street in July 2023 after nine years at the National Housing Federation, and before that she worked at Macmillan Cancer Support and the NSPCC.

In her career so far, Lucy has proudly led successful campaigns to improve cancer survival rates and access to treatments, was at the centre of the national policy response to the fire at Grenfell Tower, and launched the country's first FGM national helpline. She's delighted to now use her experience to deliver Coin Street's work in a truly inspirational neighbourhood.

Matthew Geer
Head of Communications and Marketing, West Kent Housing Association

Matt is the Head of Communications and Marketing at West Kent Housing Association, which provides 8,500 homes across Kent. Matt is the lead for all resident, employee and stakeholder communications and marketing. He has over a decade’s experience in communications, marketing, and PR, with a background in broadcast journalism. Throughout his career he has led teams to deliver strategic projects and campaigns focused on resident impact. This includes behaviour-change campaigns on furniture poverty, public health, special educational needs and disabilities, and financial support. Matt has a passion for equality, diversity, and inclusion and is a Member of the Chartered Institute of Public Relations.

Jeni Harvey
Director of Marketing and Communications, Rochdale Borough Housing

Jeni is Director of Marketing and Communications at Rochdale Boroughwide Housing and vice-chair of LGComms, the organisation that champions excellence in public sector communications.

With more than two decades’ experience across communications, marketing and journalism, Jeni started her career on newspapers in Greater Manchester, before then moving to the Yorkshire Post where she headed up the newspaper’s South Yorkshire office.

Since making the transition into Communications, Jeni has worked in strategic leadership roles across the full spectrum of public sector organisations, including councils, policing and regional Government.

She has also taught on PR and journalism courses at the University of Sheffield, and is currently a Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) trainer with the BBC.

Steve Hayes
Director of Corporate Affairs and Communications, GreenSquareAccord

Steve has more than a decade of experience leading the communications functions at housing organisations. After moving into communications and PR after a career as a newspaper journalist he led communications for the Chartered Institute of Housing and has subsequently overseen award-winning transformations of the communications functions at Citizen and GSA. Steve has become a leading voice on communication within the social housing and not-for-profit sectors and regularly speaks on national platforms to share his insight and experience. He is a non-executive director at Creative Bridge, one of the leading creative agencies in the housing sector.

Kate Henderson
Chief Executive, National Housing Federation

Kate is Chief Executive of the National Housing Federation (NHF), the voice of housing associations in England. Kate is passionate about tackling the housing crisis, inequality and climate change. She is a member of several government panels including the Rough Sleeping Advisory Panel and the Social Housing White Paper Expert Challenge Panel. Kate become a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences in 2021. Prior to joining the NHF in 2018, Kate was Chief Executive of the Town and Country Planning Association.

James Hennigan
Head of External Affairs, Riverside

James is Head of External Affairs at Riverside where he leads the comms and external affairs for one of the country’s largest housing associations.

He comes from a background in politics and comms having served as a Councillor in Manchester and worked for an MP during the coalition Government. Prior to Riverside, he spent seven years in agency working on PR and stakeholder engagement campaigns across education, skills, infrastructure and housing.

He was named in PR Week’s 30 under 30 in 2017.

Matt Horwood
Director of Communications, Open for Business

Matt has over twelve years' communications experience, six within leadership roles in sectors including sexual health, human rights and LGBTQ+ equalities at organisations including Liberty, akt (The Albert Kennedy Trust) and Terrence Higgins Trust. He has vast experience in media relations, partnership work and developing strategy and infrastructure for growing communications functions.

Matt was the former Chair of LGBTQ+ wellbeing charity London Friend and is a co-founder of LGBTQ+ non-profit events troupe LOOSE CHANGE.

Kai Jackson
Chair of Residents Scrutiny Voice Panel, Black Country Housing Group

Kai completed her BSc (Honours) Psychology and Counselling degree and achieved a British Psychological Society (BPS) accreditation. She has been the chair for her tenant's scrutiny panel for over two years. In that time, Kai has carried out three reviews, been involved in stage 2 complaints, assisted shaping policies, interviewed potential staff members, panel members and been a part of the wider reshaping of the culture of her housing association. Kai has been very vocal in her support for tenants to be more involved with their housing provider and working together to accomplish change, which can be achieved. She has spoken at two conferences with the National Housing Federation (NHF) and most recently became a Tpas Associate and speaking at their customer conference. Kai is very dedicated to tenant involvement, being diverse, without stigma, and heard.

Sonia Johal Squires
Head of Communication, Citizen

Sonia Squires is Head of Communications at Citizen Housing who have 30,000 homes across the West Midlands. A Fellow of the institute of Internal Communication, Sonia is an esteemed leader in the comms profession whose passion is in supporting leaders to drive greater connection. Sonia has worked across the education sector, NHS and now in social housing leading teams to deliver impactful comms that are truly centred on the audience.

James Kanagasooriam
Chief Research Officer and Advisory Board Member, Focaldata and Onward

James Kanagasooriam is Chief Research Officer at Focaldata, where he leads the analytics and research division. Previously, James was Head of Analytics at Populus and founded a polling startup before joining Focaldata. His career includes roles such as Partner at Hanbury Strategy and CEO of Stack Data Strategy. With a background in management consulting at OC&C and investment banking at Rothschild, James has advised global political and business leaders on public opinion and societal trends. He is credited with originating the concept of the "Red Wall" and frequently contributes to The Times Redbox, CapX, Radio 3, and BBC Newsnight.

Nicki Kirkup
Head of Communications and Engagement, NCHA

Head of Communications and Engagement for NCHA. Part of the Senior Leadership Team overseeing all external, internal and digital activities to deliver meaningful opportunities for engagement with customers, colleagues and stakeholders. Organisational lead for digital, branding, media, and reputation management. Member of the National Housing Federation’s National Communications and Influencing Group. Board Member for Northamptonshire Rural Housing Association.

Simon Lewis
Former Director of Communications, Gordon Brown

Managing Partner, Lewis Advisors & Former Vice Chairman, EMEA & Global Head of Financial Services, FTI Consulting. Simon has a long career in strategic communications, including roles on the Executive Committees of Centrica and Vodafone as Director of Corporate Affairs. He was Vice Chair EMEA at FTI Consulting and previously spent nine years as Chief Executive of the investment banking trade body the Association for Financial Markets in Europe. He is the former President of the Chartered Institute of Public Relations CIPR. He has a longstanding interest in both education and social mobility, having chaired the UK-US Fulbright Commission from 2009-13 and currently is the Chair of Young Enterprise. He was awarded an OBE in 2014 for services to international education. Simon is also a founding member of the Speakers for Schools programme. He also was the first Communication Secretary to the late Queen and Director of Communications and Official Spokesman at Number 10 for Prime Minister Gordon Brown. Simon now runs his own advisory firm Lewis Advisors, providing strategic counsel to business leaders, in partnership with his son Tom Lewis, and Stuart Roden, founding chair of Lansdowne Partners. Together with David Yelland, Simon co-hosts the popular Radio 4 podcast "When It Hits The Fan."

Rob Loughenbury
Manging Director, Lexington

Rob has worked across property strategy and communications for 10 years and recently returned to Lexington, leading their Manchester office, after four years as Director of Strategy and Executive Team Member at a major Northwest housing association.

Andrea Marchetti
Head of Customer Communications, SNG

Andrea has nearly 25 years of experience in social housing, particularly in resident and change communications. In her time at Sovereign (now SNG), she has seen the organisation grow from 12,000 to 84,000 homes and been involved in various mergers and stock transfers. After becoming an Inside Housing Safer Homes Ambassador she is now a regular speaker on engaging with customers on building safety.

She is also responsible for developing accessible and effective digital customer journeys and communicating with customers about Consumer Standards and Tenant Satisfaction Measures, SNG's extensive retrofit and net zero activities, and a wide range of other areas - from condensation to community investment.

Thea McNaught-Reynolds
Director of Culture, Communication and Involvement, Islington & Shoreditch Housing Association

Thea has 20 years of strategic marketing and communications experience, influencing audiences and delivering behaviour change outcomes in the public and private sectors, including at PwC and several housing associations. With her strong interest in diversity and inclusion, she is passionate about creating spaces where people can thrive.

Emma Midgley
Director of Integration and Transformation, Johnnie Johnson Housing

Emma has a wealth of experience in Marketing, Communications and Change. A Chartered Marketer by background, Emma has been with Johnnie Johnson Housing for over 10 years, an organisation which relishes change and loves a challenge. Emma is incredibly passionate about communications, especially when it involves influencing and bringing people on a journey, and this passion led to her taking charge of the Transformation programme back in 2019 to not only push the change projects forward, but to also ensure colleagues and more importantly customers were engaged and bought into the direction in which they were heading. Being recognised as the most innovative housing provider as the 2021 UK Housing Awards, represents the journey they have been on over the past three to four years, and makes for a great story of teamwork, pushing boundaries and more importantly having a tonne of fun!

As the Director of Integration and Transformation, Emma has responsibility for the organisation’s integration and transformation programme, which will focus on Johnnie Johnson Housing’s integration into Sanctuary, whilst continuing to improve and transform the experience for their colleagues and customers.

Rhys Moore
Executive Director of Public Impact, National Housing Federation

Rhys started with the NHF in October 2018, as Executive Director of Public Impact. Rhys oversees our policy, external affairs and communications work. Previously he was Director of the Living Wage Foundation where he worked with government, business and civil society to build a national movement of responsible employers. Before that, he helped to establish the London Community Foundation, which supports grassroots community groups in the capital. Rhys is a board member of the Carers Trust.

Lisa Naylor
Head of Built for Zero, Crisis

Lisa is Head of Built for Zero UK at the homeless charity Crisis. She has overall responsibility for bringing the Built for Zero movement to the UK and helping Crisis to meet its aim of ‘Building a community of people across Britain helping to end homelessness’. Lisa has experience in the homelessness and social housing sector both on the front-line and as a consultant and she has also worked within the family law field. Lisa is driven by a passion to redesign our systems from the ground up to ensure that those who are the furthest away from help get the support that they need to achieve their potential.

Patrick Penny-Annang
Housing Community Development and Engagement Officer, Brent Council

Moving from a career in Marketing fuelled by a desire to support his local community, Patrick joined the Housing sector in 2017. Currently, he serves as a Housing Community Development & Engagement Officer at the London Borough of Brent.

In his role, Patrick collaborates closely with residents to empower them to address and solve community issues. A significant part of his work focuses on fostering strong relationships between residents and the housing service and developing social value initiatives that enhance community engagement and well-being.

As an Islington Council tenant, Patrick is also a member of the Resident Service Improvement Group, which oversees the improvement of all housing services and monitors how the council meets consumer standards.

Patrick is dedicated to reducing the stigma surrounding Mental Health and previously served as a member of the Chartered Institute of Housing Futures, the young professionals’ board of the CIH.

Outside of work, Patrick actively supports the men's community group, "The Mandem." This initiative provides a space for men to support, celebrate, and connect with each other. Patrick is also a proud dad of 2 kids and volunteers to support new dads in his community

Violet Pugh
Co-Chair, Unify Network

Violet is a senior marketing and communications leader with over 14 years’ experience in promoting and positioning award-winning property and retail brands. She currently leads the marketing, communications and content team for MTVH – the sixth largest affordable housing provider in the UK.

A force for positive change in every aspect of her professional journey, she champions diversity and inclusion practices. As a board member of Women in Social Housing, Co-Chair of UNIFY Network, BE News DE & Editorial advisory board member, Violet is passionate about transforming workplace experiences into enriched environments, offering equal opportunities that not only elevate employee engagement and performance but also cultivate a culture rich in diversity.

Jenny Riddell-Carpenter
Labour MP, Suffolk Coastal

Danielle Sharp
Director of Communications & External Affairs, Communications Team, Plus Dane Housing

Danielle has worked in communications and marketing across different sectors for over 25 years with specialisms in insight and behaviour change, internal communications and crisis communications.

Danielle leads the Communications team, and is responsible for developing our corporate, internal communications and strategic stakeholder engagement strategies. She is a member of the Chartered Institute of Marketing and is a qualified executive coach through ILM.

Frank Soodeen
Director of Communications and Public Engagement, Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF)

Frank leads JRF’s public engagement, advocacy, and campaigning work. Frank is also responsible for providing all parts of the JRF and JRHT group with high quality communications support through its media, marketing, digital, strategic communications, public affairs, and events teams. Prior to his appointment, Frank held a series of campaigning, policy and influencing roles at JRF, the Social Mobility and Child Poverty Commission, The Nuffield Trust, The Royal College of Physicians, and Alcohol Concern. He holds degrees in philosophy, public policy and management.

Tara Singh
Managing Director, Burson’s Public Affairs

Tara Singh is Managing Director for Public Policy at Burson. She has 20 years of experience in public affairs, campaigning, and policy advice across regulated sectors including energy, tech, housing and water. Her expertise spans international multinationals, scale-ups, start-ups, and industry coalitions across the UK, Europe, Australia, and North America.

Before joining Burson, she served as Shell's global policy and communications lead for renewable power until September 2023. Acting as Special Adviser to Prime Minister David Cameron on Energy, Environment and Cost of Living during the Coalition government, and was Head of Policy for the 2016 Conservative London Mayoral Campaign. She previously led a research unit at Policy Exchange.

Kate Stanley
Executive Director, FrameWorks UK

Kate is the Executive Director of FrameWorks UK - a not for profit that helps other mission driven organisations achieve the social change they seek using framing research and evidence based strategic communications. From 2011-2020, Kate was a Board Director at the NSPCC where she led Policy, Strategy and Research. Previously, she was the Deputy Director of leading thinktank, the Institute for Public Policy Research. She has published widely on social policy and advised a wide range of organisations including the University of Glasgow and Economic and Social Research Council, and served on the Steering Group on Early Years advising the Princess of Wales. She holds a Masters degree in Social Anthropology from the University of Edinburgh.

Jonathan Tanner
Founder and Chief Executive, Rootcause

Jonathan spent 15 years in global strategic communications roles for leading politicians, public thinkers and CEOs. In 2022 he established Rootcause, a not-for-profit consultancy which brings together AI & data expertise with deep communications experience to help organisations succeed in contested narrative environments. His most recent work has explored the potential of new artificial intelligence tools for organisations working on public policy. Jonathan was creator and host of Government Vs the Robots, a podcast which explored how technology will affect politics in the future with almost 50 experts from across the world. He has written for The Guardian, The Economist, The Financial Times and the BBC. His clients include the Tony Blair Institute, the UN Foundation, Digital Action, the European AI & Society Fund, ODI, Oak Foundation, Who Targets Me, the World Health Organisation and the United Nations Development Programme.

Catherine Thomas
Chief Corporate Affairs Officer, Clarion Housing Group

Catherine leads the work at Clarion Housing Group to influence government policy and create positive change in the housing sector.  Prior to joining Clarion in February 2020, Catherine held senior marketing and communications roles in real estate and retail. Her skills in placemaking and destination marketing were honed at Land Securities, where she led the communications team for Victoria SW1, including Nova, the highly successful mixed-use complex. She has also worked on major European and Middle Eastern real estate projects.

Ciaran Tully
External Affair Manager, National Housing Federation

Ciaran Tully is an External Affairs Manager at the National Housing Federation. He is the regional lead for North West and the member engagement lead for influencing.

Luke Tryl
Executive Director, More in Common

As Executive Director of More in Common UK, Luke leads the organisation’s ground-breaking UK public opinion and thought leadership work.

Luke has worked to shine a light on what the public thinks about topics as diverse as immigration, climate change, gender identity and mental health. With a focus on the nuances and complexity of public opinion, he has helped policymakers, business and civil society navigate issues often regarded as tricky and divisive.

Since starting work at More in Common, Luke has overseen the development of its in-house UK research agency and directs its regular programme of polling and focus groups.

He is a regular commentator on UK public opinion across both print and broadcast media and has appeared on Radio 4’s Today Programme, Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg, Times Radio and Politics Hub with Sophy Ridge. He has also written for various publications including the Times, Telegraph, Guardian, New Statesman and the Spectator.

Before joining More in Common, Luke's career spanned politics, public opinion, and government. He served as a Special Advisor to Nicky Morgan during the Cameron administration and as Director of Strategy at the education inspectorate Ofsted.

Anne Waterhouse
Chief Executive, Wandle Housing Association

Anne became Wandle Housing Association’s Chief Executive in April 2023 and is a Co-optee to Wandle’s Board. Anne joined Wandle from A2Dominion, where she had been for 17 years, holding a variety of senior roles –most recently as Deputy CEO and Executive Director (Central & Financial Services). Prior to working in the housing sector Anne had a variety of roles within the house building industry including as a Finance Director. Anne has a proven track record within the housing sector and is responsible for undertaking the delivery of Wandle’s corporate strategy and working with key stakeholders, to ensure that Wandle continues to support people across south London who need a home.

David Yelland
Former Editor, The Sun

David Yelland, who established Kitchen Table Partners as a start-up in 2015, is one of the most experienced senior level communications advisors in the world. His clients include many leading people in their field - in businesses across all sectors - in the UK, the United States and elsewhere in the world. David has sixteen years’ experience at the top of the sector including eleven years’ experience at two of the world’s leading communications companies: Brunswick Group LLP, where he was a Partner for nearly nine years, and Weber Shandwick, where he was Senior Vice Chairman in the UK and Ireland for two years. He also had a successful eighteen-year career in journalism, starting on a small weekly newspaper in England and culminating in being made Editor of The Sun, the world’s biggest selling English language daily, at the age of 35. He was Editor for five years. David was previously both business editor and later deputy editor (the number two post on the paper) of the New York Post. He lived in the United States for seven years. He is an Alumnus of the Harvard Business School: having completed the Advanced Management Program. David is a Life Patron of the NSPCC and a Trustee of Action on Addiction, a major British charity. He has also written a novel, published by Penguin Books. David currently co-hosts the Radio 4 programme and podcast, When It Hits The Fan, together with Simon Lewis