2019 Conference Line-up - Updated

Planning and preparation is well under way for the National Empty Homes Conference, to be held in Birmingham on Wednesday 25th September, 2019. As always, a strong and varied speaker line-up includes presentations from: - Kerrie Eastman; Streets2Homes & Harlow Council Using Council owned empty properties to help homelessness Highlighting the successes of their recent project in collaboration with Harlow Council, Kerrie discusses how Streets2Homes has been influential in bringing back into use two Council owned properties, to help house nine rough sleepers. - Brighid Carey; Action on Empty Homes Community Based Projects: Research Findings Brigid presents a summary of Action on Empty Homes’ findings into their research of six community-based initiatives, released earlier in the year, and how this aims to shape and develop their approach and policy going forward. - Martin Ellerby; PlaceFirst Bringing the Welsh Streets back to life Head of New Business and Innovation and a founding member of Placefirst, Martin Ellerby discusses the journey from concept to reality in breathing life into often neglected neighbourhoods, and how housing is at the centre of everything they do. Famous for their work in the Welsh Streets area of Liverpool, Martin discusses how Placefirst are embracing the Empty Homes challenge. - Joshua Williams & Thomas Evans; EON Energy & North East Derbyshire District Council A Private Sector Solution to Empty Homes Josh and Thomas talk us through their collaborative approach, where EON have been supporting the Local Authority in providing financial, project management and practical support to empty home owners in North East Derbyshire. - Nick Beetham; Fraser & Fraser Empty Homes and Probate Having 20 years of experience working with clients in both Private and Public Sector organisations, Nick discusses some practical tips for Empty Homes Officers, and ways of addressing common problems when it comes to properties going through the processes of Probate. Fiona Anthony, NPLaw The Public Sector Equality Duty Following on from last year’s well received GDPR and CPO sessions, Fiona presents on the Public Sector Equality Duty placed on Councils. She will explore how Officers and Practitioners can demonstrate that they have had due regard to the needs of persons who share protected characteristics and what steps can be taken to remove or minimise the disadvantages they suffer. - Nick Pritchard-Gordon; Reading Borough Council What is an Empty Home: Back to Basics With Council’s across the Country adopting a number of approaches to tackling different types of empty homes, Nick opens the debate as to whether certain types of Empty Homes should be considered a priority, or simply left alone? - Andrew Lavender; Housing Training & Consultancy Ltd Practitioner Surgery Ever present at the Empty Homes Conference, Andrew offers his expertise to provide practical solutions to your Empty Homes problems. Whether it’s case studies, enforcement, loans, grants, or anything housing related, Andrew will be on hand to answer any questions you may have. - Jon Fitzmaurice OBE; SelfHelpHousing.Org Empty Homes and Funding Options Regular speaker and presenter at the Empty Homes Conference, Jon presents on a rang of options available to Local Authorities and Registered providers wanting to fund bringing empty homes back into use. - Will McMahon; Director, Action on Empty Homes A National update Will provides an update on his first 12 months in the role of Director for the National Campaigning Charity, as well as their main aims and objectives for the next 12 months.  - Shaheena Din; Scottish Empty Homes Partnership The North and South Divide With a number of legislation and policy changes in recent years, Scotland has made significant progress in work to reduce the number of Empty Homes Nationally. Shaheena brings us up to speed with developments, how the partnership brings together Councils from across Scotland, and their aims to tackle the issue with new initiatives. - Matthew Smith; Birmingham City Council 365 Houses in 365 Days Matt Smith, Principle Enforcement Officer for Birmingham City Council and former Chair of the Empty Homes Network, discusses his team’s ambitious target of returning to use one empty home for every day of the calendar year. Launched during last year’s ‘Empty Homes Week’, Matt talks us through their successes and pitfalls of launching such an initiative.   There are still plenty of places left but there is a steady flow of bookings.  All recent conferences have got close to capacity, and with this one is running in Empty Homes Week there will be plenty of interest. Book now to avoid disappointment. We're most grateful to our main sponsors, Auction House UK, Gold Conference Supporters, No Use Empty, Kent, for helping us keep the cost of attending our Conference so low.      Full details of the Conference can be found on the Conference web-page. You can also download our booking form as well as our Sponsorshp Brochure below. Sponsorship Opportunities; 2019_0.pdf Conference Booking Form - 2019v2.docx