Housing Essex Conference

Housing and Planning professionals discussed innovation in housing and what housing might look like in 2050 at their annual autumn conference.

Developers, contractors, consultants, local housing companies, housing associations, Essex County Council and district and unitary authorities, descended on Orsett Hall in Thurrock, on November 22, for the one-day event, entitled ‘Innovation in housing’.

The Government first spoke about the importance of place making, current interventions and the tools to help accelerate housing growth. The Ebbfleet Garden City was cited as a real life example of a Programme taking shape, before the focus shifted to the North Essex Garden Communities where up to 43,000 homes and 43,000 jobs are being planned. To assist housing growth; Land Value Capture, improving skills and meeting the needs of different groups such as the millennial and platinum generation was discussed.

The conference also saw the presentation of an award to Sarah Hill, a student at South Essex College who won a competition to design an eye-catching logo for the South Essex Housing Group, which represents the vision to encourage quality housing growth in South Essex.

In the afternoon, two study tours were organized to view developments by Sempra Homes at Basildon, Notting Hill Genesis at City Park and Countryside at Beaulieu and the South Essex College’s Green Construction Training Academy at Leigh on Sea.

Speaker presentations can be found here:

A link to the short film on Housing Futures forming part of James Green’s presentation can be found here:

Futures Programme – James Green, National Housing Federation

A selection of conference photographs by Alistair Underwood can be found here:

Housing Essex Conference photos