Claim OwnershipThe Housing Sector Podcast
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© 2025 The Housing Sector Podcast
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The Housing Sector Podcasts provide candid, insightful discussions on housing issues, featuring unfiltered conversations with residents and industry insiders to advocate for better services and transparency in the housing sector.
49 Episodes
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This blog explores the housing sector’s growing disconnect between professionals and the residents they claim to serve. It unpacks the dangerous comfort of echo chambers, the rise of tokenism, and how resident voices — the real experts — are too often excluded, silenced, or co-opted. It also highlights how a new wave of grassroots campaigners is pushing back — building platforms, breaking bubbles, and refusing to be ignored. If you're serious about truth, reform, and making housing work for...
My latest blog looks at the impact of Birmingham City Council’s financial collapse on tenants and leaseholders: unsafe homes, service charges paid but not delivered, and basic safety concerns that remain unanswered. At the same time, the Regulator of Social Housing now has stronger powers under the 2023 Act — including Ofsted-style inspections and unlimited fines. So why hasn’t it stepped in? Where is the governance rating for Birmingham City Council? Where is the scrutiny and accountability?...
How many of us are paying for services we never see delivered? Amber was. So were her neighbours. Instead of waiting for answers, they took action. They legally removed their managing agent, set up their own resident-led company, and took full control of managing their block. What followed wasn’t just a reduction in service charges — it was a rise in standards, accountability, and community power. This isn’t a fantasy — it’s already happening. And if more leaseholders follow Amber’s lead, it ...
In this episode, I’m joined by Mel Little for a direct and wide-ranging conversation about the state of the housing sector — and the growing gap between what residents experience and what institutions are prepared to admit. Using Birmingham as a case study, we explore how serious safety issues, deteriorating homes, and long-term neglect are increasingly treated as isolated problems, when in reality they point to a much deeper, national failure. What is happening in one city is not unique — i...
In this episode, I speak with Sue Phillips, founder of Shared Ownership Resources, about the government’s ongoing inquiry into whether “affordable home ownership” is truly affordable. Sue explains why shared owners’ experiences matter now more than ever — and how you can make your voice heard by completing the Housing, Communities and Local Government Committee’s online survey before the deadline on 29 November 2025. If you’re a shared owner, this is your chance to tell MPs what works, what...
In Housing Sector Podcast #58 – Compassionate Leadership in Housing, I speak with Tanya Scott, Head of Specialist Housing at Accent Housing. Tanya has built a career defined by care, visibility, and purpose. With more than two decades’ experience in safeguarding and supporting vulnerable communities, she’s known for leading with empathy and driving positive change across the housing sector. Since joining Accent, Tanya has helped strengthen specialist housing and temporary accommodation servic...
Across the UK, more and more residents are being forced to leave their homes at short notice as buildings are declared unsafe — from fire risks and structural defects to RAAC and wider safety failures. In this episode, I speak with Matt Hodges-Long, co-founder of the Building Safety Register and TrackMyRisks, about what really happens when homes are evacuated. We talk about how these decisions are made, where people go, and what support residents actually receive once the cameras move on. Fol...
In this episode, I sit down with Dominic Ahern, a writer and commentator whose work on Substack explores housing policy, governance, and safety. We’re revisiting building safety — a subject that keeps resurfacing because, despite all the talk of progress, little has truly changed. The focus has shifted to “new build standards,” yet even those have been watered down, while thousands of existing homes remain unsafe. Residents continue to live with fear and frustration as systemic failures go un...
In this episode, I sit down with Lee, a homeowner and fleecehold campaigner, to expose how residents are being charged thousands each year for minimal or non-existent maintenance — and why this unregulated system is fast becoming a national scandal. We discuss the 39% management fee that shocked residents, fake online reviews allegedly written by the management company itself, and open spaces left unfinished for years. Lee also talks about his work with the Homeowners Rights Network (HORNETS...
In this episode, I’m joined by Suz Muna, Secretary of the Social Housing Action Campaign (SHAC), to discuss the urgent need for a national tenants and residents union. We explore what such a union could offer members: practical casework support, guidance on tenancy rights, and even standing alongside residents in court. With legal aid cut to the bone, tenants are left facing landlords with little or no backing. A union could rebalance power, protect people from intimidation, and give weight t...
Earlier this year, I put a call out on LinkedIn for help connecting with professionals working in housing and domestic abuse. Thank you to everyone who responded, shared, tagged, or introduced. Your support helped make this episode happen—and more will follow. In this episode of the Housing Sector Podcast, I speak with Sherrelle Collman, a frontline practitioner supporting survivors of domestic abuse through her work in specialist Domestic Violence Units at Caridon. We explore what happens ...
What happens when a “luxury” new‑build home becomes a nightmare? In this episode, I talk to Alexandra Druzhinin—a homeowner who paid nearly £900,000 for what was marketed as her dream flat in Camden. But instead of sanctuary, she found a dangerous reality: a timber‑framed building that’s structurally compromised, unmortgageable, uninsurable—and, in her words, “crumbling beneath us” Alexandra has uncovered mould, leaks, deep cracks, and rotted joists. A structural engineer has even advis...
In this hard-hitting episode, I sit down with Frank Chiverton — a director with over 35 years of experience in surveying, damp and mould consultancy, project planning, and contract management — for a frank and forthright conversation about the state of UK housing. We discuss the systemic decline in build quality, the disappearance of skilled oversight on site, and how roles once responsible for quality control have been quietly phased out. Frank reflects on the legacy of schemes like Decent H...
Retrofitting is one of the biggest challenges in housing today. When it’s done well, it can transform homes, reduce bills, and improve lives. But when it goes wrong, residents can be left with cold homes, higher costs, and serious legal battles. In this episode, I sit down with Sophie Ait-Tayeb from Anthony Gold Solicitors to talk about what happens when retrofitting works — and what support is available when it doesn’t. We cover: The rights residents have if retrofit projects fail Legal s...
In this episode, I’m joined by Mel Little — a Birmingham high-rise resident and health & safety professional — who exposes how fire safety is failing in practice despite being signed off on paper. We discuss: Fire doors failing inspections and redacted fire risk assessmentsCompartmentation failures, lithium-ion battery risks, and stay-put policiesA council officer accusing Mel of lying when she raised blocked fire accessMissing Building Safety Act documents and misinterpretation of reside...
In this episode, I speak with campaigner Deepa Mistry, who has taken an extraordinary step to get her housing provider to listen — launching a public petition. While many residents raise concerns through complaints, meetings, or social media, Deepa’s experience shows what happens when those routes fail. Residents shouldn’t have to go to such lengths simply to be heard, yet for Deepa, creating a petition has become the only way to spark action and attract wider attention. Despite repeated at...
In Episode 47, I speak with Zoë Garbett AM — Green Party London Assembly Member, Hackney councillor, and one of the few politicians willing to speak plainly about the state of housing in this country. This conversation pulls no punches. We talk about what’s really happening behind the headlines, and why the public narrative around housing is so often divorced from the lived reality of residents, leaseholders, and struggling local councils. We cover: Coniston House — and what its failings tell...
In this hard-hitting episode, I sit down with housing commentator and policy analyst Joe Halewood to examine one of the most devastating and overlooked realities in the UK today: how benefit cuts have made so-called “affordable housing” unaffordable — and the chain reaction that follows. We talk numbers. We talk policy. And we talk about the lived experiences behind the statistics. Families are being priced out of their homes, falling into arrears, and facing eviction — not becaus...
In this episode, I speak with Simon Reay, Group Director at Rubixx, one of the alternative tech providers shaking up a sector long dominated by legacy systems and outdated thinking. With more than two decades of experience in social housing, Simon brings insight into how Rubixx is building smarter, resident-focused systems that streamline service delivery without losing sight of the people they’re built for. For Rubixx, “resident at the heart” isn’t a buzzword — it’s embedded in the software ...
For the first time on the Housing Sector Podcast, I’m joined by three guests — campaigners from the grassroots group Welsh Cladiators — to talk about building safety, leasehold injustice, and the slow, painful fight for accountability in Wales. Despite having a devolved government, the issues facing residents in Wales mirror those in England. Unsafe homes. Delays. Legal loopholes. A government that won't act until pushed. The housing crisis may wear different colours, but it speaks the same l...
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