HJ Housing Week 2026

Hugh James Housing Week returns with a dedicated programme of events, webinars, video conversations and practical legal insight for the housing sector.

This year’s theme: Building for Growth

What does growth mean for housing associations, local authorities, private sector builders and sector partners across Wales and England? This year’s programme explores the people, communities, projects and leadership decisions shaping housing delivery over the next decade, and how the legal landscape supports or challenges those ambitions.

With over 40 years’ experience advising the housing sector, we bring together legal expertise, practical guidance and sector insight on the issues that matter most. Our team works closely with housing organisations across Wales and England to help them navigate risk, unlock opportunities and deliver for the communities they serve.

Whether your organisation is working towards ambitious housing targets or strengthening community cohesion, Housing Week offers an opportunity to consider the conditions needed for sustainable growth.

Explore the full programme below to see what’s happening each day. Sign up for the full week or choose the individual days most relevant to your role to receive the associated digital content and updates.

Days 2 and 3 include private, limited-capacity in-person events, bringing together a varied network of clients and stakeholders. To attend either event, please register your interest through this page. Registering interest does not guarantee a place; our team will contact you directly to confirm attendance.

For senior leaders, HR teams, people managers and anyone with responsibility for workforce planning in the housing sector.

Housing growth depends on more than land, funding and policy. It depends on people: the leaders, managers and teams who carry knowledge through an organisation and turn strategy into delivery.

Day 1 explores how housing providers can build a resilient workforce, prepare future leaders and respond to employment law changes.

Sign up to access an in-depth fireside conversation between Louise Price, Head of Employment, and a senior HR director from a housing association. Together, they will explore succession planning in the housing sector: identifying future leaders, retaining organisational knowledge and managing change without losing momentum or storing up workforce problems for the future.

Sign-up also includes short legal insight videos covering the October and January employment reforms. These three-question updates are designed to give senior leaders, HR teams and managers clear, practical guidance on what is changing, why it matters and what to do next.

Register now to receive the ‘Growing your workforce sustainably’ session,

For development directors, chief executives, board members, asset leaders, planners, private builders and anyone involved in housing supply, investment or development strategy.

Day 2 features our first in-person event of the week, and one of the standout events in the Housing Week programme. Delivered in collaboration with Savills, the event centres on the launch of Savills’ latest Welsh Housing Market Outlook Report, with their renowned Residential Research team presenting the economic outlook and its direct implications for the Welsh housing market.

The report launch will be followed by a live panel discussion hosted by Caroline O’Flaherty, Partner and head of social housing. Bringing together key decision-makers from across the sector, the panel will explore what the report’s findings mean for real housing projects, the role of Unnos, the new national development body and social housing enabler, and whether delivery can match ambition.

Panellists include Richard Baker from the Welsh Government; Matthew Davies, managing director of Davies Homes and chair of the HBF South Wales Managing Directors Group; and Grant Prosser from Codi. Further panellists to be confirmed.

The discussion focuses on evidence-based decision-making in the housing sector, looking at what data from Wales and England can tell us, where the limits of that data lie, and how better evidence can support decisions on strategy, development and long-term investment.

Please note: This is a private, limited-capacity event in-person event, to ensure that a varied network of clients and stakeholders can benefit and contribute to the conversation. If you would like to attend the event, please register your interest using the form on this page. Registration interest does not guarantee a place at the in-person event, and our team will contact you directly to confirm attendance.

Whether or not you attend in person, sign up for Day 2 to access a fireside conversation with Alex Madden, Partner and Head of Planning. The discussion will explore Plaid Cymru’s planning proposals and what they could mean for housing delivery in Wales, from simpler planning processes to greater community involvement.

Register you interest in attending our ‘Growing supply with confidence’ event. A member of our team will be in touch to confirm your attendance.

For housing management teams, operational leaders, safeguarding leads, legal teams and senior decision-makers involved in community-facing housing work.

Day 3 is our in-person housing law conference, focused on the legal and practical issues that sit at the centre of community-facing housing work.

Growth is not only measured in the number of homes delivered. It is also measured in the strength, safety and resilience of the communities those homes serve.

The conference includes focused sessions on:

• The Crime and Policing Act and its implications for housing providers.
• Homelessness and the pressures facing landlords, local authorities and communities.
• Safeguarding and the role housing providers play in recognising and responding to risk.
• Mental capacity and the difficult decisions that can arise in tenancy, support and enforcement contexts.

Please note: This is a private, limited-capacity event in-person event, to ensure that a varied network of clients and stakeholders can benefit and contribute to the conversation. If you would like to attend the event, please register your interest using the form on this page. Registration interest does not guarantee a place at the in-person event, and our team will contact you directly to confirm attendance.

Register you interest in attending our ‘Growing community and cohesion’ event. A member of our team will be in touch to confirm your attendance.

For development teams, asset managers, construction professionals, procurement teams, project leads, private builders and senior leaders responsible for safe delivery and investment in existing stock.

Delivering more homes cannot be separated from building safely, managing construction risk and improving the homes people already live in.

Sign up for Day 4 to access our construction law update, hosted by Matthew Stevens, Head of Construction, infrastructure and projects, with presentations from Alex Madden, Iwan Jenkins and Alex Howells.

The webinar covers building safety liability, the JCT Target Cost Contract and developments in planning law, exploring the practical implications for housing providers and builders.

Your Day 4 sign-up also gives access to an in-depth fireside conversation with Matthew Stevens, exploring how housing associations can deliver more homes safely while improving existing homes and managing the risks of active development programmes. A guest speaker from the housing development sector will be confirmed in due course.

Register now to receive the ‘Growing safely’ sessions.

For chief executives, board members, executive teams, governance leads and senior decision-makers looking ahead to the next decade of housing delivery.

The final day of Hugh James Housing Week 2026 focuses on the strategic questions facing senior leadership teams across the housing sector. After a week exploring people, supply, communities and delivery, Day 5 asks what it will take to deliver the next decade of housing growth.

Sign up for Day 5 to receive exclusive access to two videos exploring the pressures facing housing leaders and the decisions shaping the sector’s future.

The first video, ‘Horizon scanning: Navigating a period of competing pressures’, is a seminar delivered in collaboration with Community Housing Cymru. Originally presented to CHC members, it gives board members, executive teams and senior decision-makers at Welsh registered social landlords a practical overview of the reforms and pressures requiring action or careful monitoring. Topics include building safety, development, asset management, planning, cyber and AI risk, governance, Welsh Language Standards and employment reform.

The second video brings together Harriet Morgan, Partner in commercial property, Auriol Miller, chief executive at Cynon Taf, and Jason Wroe, interim chief executive at First Choice Housing Association, to discuss how organisational size shapes housing growth.

They explore the outlook of housing associations with fewer staff and homes, and how their challenges and opportunities differ from those of larger organisations. Relevant to senior leaders across Wales and England, the discussion considers whether the sector operates as a “two-tier system” and what that means for delivering growth over the next decade.

Your Day 5 sign-up also gives access to a short legal insight video from Liz Fletcher, Head of Procurement, on the Commercial Payments Bill and what it could mean for housing providers and their supply chains.

Register now to receive the ‘Leading growth with confidence’ session.