2026 Judges
Steve Allcock
Director of Transformation and Customer Experience, Riverside Homes
Steve is a board and executive level technology and transformation director with nearly 20 years of experience in delivering award-winning business transformation through technology, process, and people. With a strong background in customer services, digital innovation, and operational excellence across multiple regulated sectors, such as housing, financial services, health and utilities.
Currently, Steve is responsible for the strategic transformation portfolio across The Riverside Group, and leads a large team of business transformation experts, covering PMO, business design, programme management, business adoption, and continuous improvement. Steve manages large budgets and oversees the merger and integration of Riverside and One Housing Group, as well as contractual and legislative change, and corporate plan deliverables.
Steve’s focus is always on delivering customer value, influencing culture, and driving colleague performance and satisfaction. Steve is also a board director at Magenta Living, providing strategic advice and guidance on business performance, vision, and direction of travel.
Rana Ashkar
Divisional Land Director (North), Countrywide Land and New Homes
Rana is the National Land Director covering North UK and Scotland at Countrywide Land and New Homes which is the UK’s largest Land & New Homes agency with national coverage and a multi-branch network.
Rana has over 14 years’ experience in the property industry, successfully acquiring, developing, and disposing of a wide range of sites ,from regional to major city centre projects, which enables job creation, development of high-quality communities and sustainable workplaces.
Having transacted nationally and internationally, Rana overseas 210 of the company’s 550 branches.
She specialises in understanding developers’ residential and commercial requirements, utilising her skills, passion, and knowledge to maximise value and lead her team who pride themselves on their personal relationships with clients and helping to rejuvenate the local communities in which they work.
Barrington Billings
Director of Operations, Tuntum Housing
Barrington Billings has over three decades of senior leadership experience in the housing sector. His career includes senior executive roles at Hallmark Community Housing, Places for People Group, the Housing Corporation, and the Prime Focus Group. In 2004 he created a property services company, delivering decent homes contracts to the housing sector in the midlands and major works nationally for the Ministry of Defence.
His governance experience spans housing, health, education, and commercial sectors, with past roles including Chair of Manningham Housing Association, Board Member at Gentoo Group and an NHS Hospital Trust, President of the Chartered Institute of Housing, a visiting speaker at Warwick Business School and external examiner at De Montfort University.
Barrington is currently Director of Operations at Tuntum Housing Association and was appointed Chair of BME National in 2025 where he leads national work to strengthen equity, inclusion, and representation across the housing sector.
Cedric Boston
Chief Executive, Unity Homes and Enterprise.
Cedric Boston is currently the CEO of Unity Homes and Enterprise, a Housing Association based in Leeds that supports people into employment, training or to set up their own business. Cedric has over 30 years’ experience in Housing, 25 of them at senior executive level.
He is a former Chief Executive of Arhag, a BME association in London that specializes in addressing the needs of migrants and refugees. Prior to that he was Director of Housing at Lambeth Living, one of the UKs largest ALMOs, and before that the Director of Operations in Richmond Housing Partnership.
He has a degree in law and politics and is a member of Gray’s Inn where he qualified as a barrister.
Eleanor Bowden
MD Homes, Pineapple Partnerships
Eleanor is a strategic leader in housing, specialising in stakeholder collaboration and strategy.
She leads Pineapple Partnerships’ Homes division, driving transformative decarbonisation projects and improvements in the private rented sector. Her career highlights include leading a consortium of major companies to decarbonise social housing, delivering a national programme for Local Authority PRS teams, playing a key role in creating Homes England’s strategic plan, and founding a company addressing wheelchair-accessible housing.
A Non-Executive Director on a housing association board, Eleanor is recognised for her expertise in creating partnerships and delivering measurable social impact, with awards from Property Week, Estates Gazette, and Grant Thornton
Mark Cantrell
Editor, Housing Digital
A writer and journalist for more years than he cares to count, he has written about England’s social housing sector for some 14 years.
Away from the day job, he writes about plenty more too; when he’s in the mood that can include some pretty acerbic social commentary.
Mark is the author of two published novels, broadly sci-fi in nature with a twist of dystopia. They’re called Citizen Zero and Silas Morlock, if you must know.
Guy Corbett
Director of Business Improvement, Livv Housing
Guy has worked for Livv Housing Group for 10 years in a variety of roles covering Customer, Health and Safety, IT and Business Improvement. Guy leads the Business Improvement and Health and Safety Teams within Livv driving change across the business with a focus on improving colleague and customer experiences.
Prior to working for Livv Guy has worked in senior roles in Telecoms and Banking and is able to bring this wide range of experiences to the housing sector.
Stewart Davison
Founder & Proptech Consultant – Elehan Consulting + Elim housing Vice Chair.
Stewart is passionate about how technology can be a force for positive change. Having worked in the UK social housing sector, both in front line housing and in tech companies he has been able to inform, educate and implement new technologies to improve the lives of tenants across the UK. Stewart is all about transformational change, looking at challenging the status quo and he is definitely the enemy of ‘just doing the same thing’
Stewart has been fortunate to have been given opportunities to lead engaged teams in product development, sales and account management and takes technology from other sectors, and utilises it in housing, but also likes to show other industries what they could learn from the best of social housing.
Stephen Dunstan
Director of Resources, Blackpool Coastal Housing
Stephen is an ICAEW qualified Chartered Accountant and a full member of the Chartered Institute of Housing.
As part of BCH’s wellbeing efforts he has obtained an NVQ in leading workplace exercise activity, and is the founding Event Director of the only junior parkrun in Blackpool.
James Ealey
Deputy Chief Executive, Northern Housing Consortium & NHC Procurement
James Ealey has over 25 years of marketing, commercial and operational expertise with a rich tapestry of experience in the private, public, and not-for-profit sectors.
As deputy chief executive of Northern Housing Consortium and NHC Procurement, he leads the procurement, commercial, marketing, IT, HR and wellbeing teams in delivering future-proofed, innovative and effective solutions.
James has a keen interest in policy and changemaking, and how the political agenda will drive thinking and initiatives on the road to net zero in housing, health, and social care, exemplified by his role as a non-executive member of the Believe Housing Board.
Matt Hickman
Refurbishment Partnerships Director, Lovell Renew
With over 25 years’ experience working as a tier 1 contractor in social housing, Matt has a passion for creating great places to live and work.
He leads on planned maintenance and decarbonisation projects, making people’s homes warmer, safer, better, and healthier.
His people focussed approach includes promoting and developing innovative solutions to improve the service delivery for Lovell teams, supply chain partners, customers, and residents.
Vicky Hoare
Operations Director, HACT
Vicky Hoare is Operations Director at HACT (Housing Associations’ Charitable Trust), where she leads organisational delivery, performance and commercial programmes supporting the housing sector. Her work spans community programmes, innovation projects, data and insight platforms, and retrofit and decarbonisation initiatives, working with housing providers and partners to improve outcomes for residents and neighbourhoods.
Vicky has over 20 years’ experience across housing, regeneration and professional services. Prior to HACT she held senior leadership roles at Place Capital Group and Placefirst, where she led customer-facing services, operational transformation and neighbourhood regeneration programmes in communities across the North of England. Her career has focused on turning strategy into practical delivery, improving resident experience and helping organisations operate effectively and sustainably.
Matt Jarratt
Director Of Operations, Procure Plus
Matt leads the team responsible for procuring and delivering £200m of investment works and services annually.His team of specialists utilise the collective volume and knowledge of their customers to understand the market and drive continuous improvement from their activity and exposure to it.
Matt is a chartered building surveyor and prior to joining Procure Plus in April 2010 he worked in a range of construction and development roles across the public and private sectors.
Sean Lawless
Director of Customer Experience and Transformation, North Star Housing
Sean is the Director of Customer Experience and Transformation at North Star, a Platinum Investors in People Housing Association based in the North East of England.
North Star manage over 4000 properties including a number of Supported Housing schemes.
Sean’s role involves encouraging innovation within the organisation to bring a way of new thinking to solve old problems and using data insight to help to create sustainable change.
David Loudon
CEO & Founder, Digital Bark Consultancy
Dave Loudon is one of the most experienced and successful social housing technology consultants in the UK having worked in the sector for 20 years, just under 5 as a Director of Corporate Services for Berwickshire Housing Association and 12 as the founder of one of the most prolific management consultancies, DTL Creative, where he worked with over 100 landlords and over 20 technology suppliers.
He has worked across a varied range of systems and data related services and strategies for landlords and is known for his ability to work across all areas of housing operations and strategy.
Before his decades in housing, David was a senior leader in technology across Oil and Gas, Telecoms, Engineering and Consultancy.
Dave is now the founder of Digital Bark a new force in the sectors use of technology, challenging and encouraging more efficient and effective use of systems, data and technology to better the customer experience.
He is well known for his extensive network and is asked regularly to speak at events, take part in think tanks, working groups and many other initiatives.
Dave is a passionate believer in the sector and technology as a force for good and is also a board member for a Scottish landlord, where he is also a member of the audit and risk committee. He is also a non-exec for a technology solutions provider and a technology contributor for Housing Executive magazine.
Lucy Lovatt
Head Of Markets, Partners and Places (National), Homes England
Lucy has been with Homes England for five years working across both strategic and delivery roles. She has over 20 years of experience in housing and regeneration, primarily in Greater Manchester and the West Midlands.
Throughout her career she has undertaken strategy development, housing delivery and regeneration activity, giving her insight into the complex relationships behind the big picture and the detail required for successful project and programme delivery.
Her current role focuses on the development of Homes England’s national place-based delivery approach. She is also a qualified career coach and provides ongoing career coaching support.
Peter Lunio
DASH consultancy
Peter is an AI/Digital and housing specialist who helps boards and executives use AI safely, ethically, and with impact.
Through DASH, he works with housing providers, AI practitioners and academic partners to turn complex technology into practical, board-ready tools that build trust and improve services.
A former consultant with Ernst & Young/RSM who has advised organisations such as BT and 3M, Peter now focuses on helping the housing sector move from experimentation to assurance. He also serves as a Trustee with Citizens Advice, reflecting his commitment to fairness and community impact.
His mission: to make AI integration simple, transparent, and tenant-first.
Elaine Middleton
Independent Strategic Advisor & Board Member, Livin Housing
Elaine is a strategic business consultant specialising in leadership engagement, marketing, strategy planning and communications.
With over 19 years’ experience in housing, Elaine has held senior roles in both housing associations, and leading social housing sector partners, where she has led transformational projects across customer operations, marketing and engagement and data insights.
Her expertise lies in motivating teams, driving performance improvements, and delivering strategic solutions and propositions.
She is also a Board member for a housing association in the North East and Chair of regulatory and government roundtables designed to support open communication and information sharing between sector leaders and senior stakeholders.
Elaine is also a qualified marketing professional with Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM) Chartered Postgraduate Diploma.
David Miller
Director & Principal Architect, Miller Architects
David’s expertise is in the design and delivery of complex buildings based on his experience in the offices of Norman Foster in the 1980s, Santiago Calatrava in the early nineties, and then at Future Systems, where he was responsible for the Stirling Prize-winning Media Centre at Lord’s Cricket Ground.
After setting up the practice in 2000, David acted as a consultant to Ushida Findlay, helping them to realise their concepts through three dimensional problem solving. This specialist knowledge evolved into a belief that combining technology with process-driven design and construction brings creative opportunities and delivers progressive architecture. This approach continues to drive DMA today.
Phil Morgan
Leading authority on tenant involvement and former Chief Executive of TPAS
Phil is an experienced consultant in resident engagement, scrutiny and regulatory compliance.
He has his own consultancy Phil Morgan Limited and sits on Accent Housing’s Customer Experience Committee and the Building Safety Regulator’s Statutory Residents Panel.
He was previously Chief Executive of TPAS and Executive Director of Tenant Services at the Regulator of Social Housing.
Phil is also the author of ‘Learning from Regulatory Downgrades’.
Jill Murray
Chief Executive, Launchpad Homeless Veterans Charity
Jill is an accomplished chief executive and housing professional with extensive leadership skills, knowledge and experience. Having spent the majority of her 43 year housing career in social housing, her experience has included a path of continuous learning in organisations of varying structures, size and capacity, which has afforded her a diverse range of skills across housing association, local authority and the private sector.
Throughout her career, her enthusiasm for excellence in leadership has inspired her to develop further and to develop others. Jill’s work on leading and empowering staff and regenerating communities has attracted both regional and national recognition, including various personal and organisational awards. The story surrounding the success of her leadership approach in Byker, Newcastle, has been included as a chapter in a book titled ‘Hope Under Neoliberal Austerity’ published in April 2021.
Jill’s role as the chief executive of a high profile housing association for over nine years, provided her with in-depth and specialist knowledge of strategic leadership, culture, planning, good governance, assurance, risk management, community regeneration, resident involvement and co-creation.
Jill is the Immediate Past President of the Chartered Institute of Housing, she has also served as a Non-Exec Director in a large NHS Mental Health, Foundation Trust, where she chaired the People, Culture and Diversity Committee and was the NED Wellbeing Guardian. Additionally, Jill has worked alongside a national Child Poverty Charity, to raise awareness and valuable funding to help support the most vulnerable children/young people and families throughout the UK.
Emma Richman
WiP National Chair & Board Member, First Choice Homes
Emma is an award winning Housing Professional with a career in housing that spans over 28 years. She is a qualified Architect and Building Surveyor.
Emma is currently a board member of The Pankhurst Centre in Manchester, including Manchester Women’s Aid.
Emma is a previous Chair of the North West Branch of Women in Property and has been on their committee for the last 11 years, currently as National Vice Chair.
Lynne Shea
CEO, Salvation Army Homes
Lynne Shea is the Chief Executive of Salvation Army Homes, a provider of affordable homes and supported accommodation services throughout England. Lynne has led the organisation from a non-compliant Governance rating to be fully compliant with the Regulator of Social Housing.
Lynne is a qualified accountant with over 30 years’ experience. She is an established leader in the Housing Sector and has held executive positions in the private and housing association sectors for over 26 years.
Paul Smith
Group Chief Executive, Elim Housing Group
Paul Smith is the CEO of Elim Housing Association, a largely specialist provider based in the south west which has recently become a subsidiary of Places For People, a member of the CIH Board and a social historian.
Paul has worked for a number of housing organisations over the last 38 years and has been the CEO of Housing Potential UK (the sector skills agency), the furniture re-use network and interim Director of Placeshapers. Paul has also served as the Cabinet Member of Housing at Bristol City Council (2016-2020).
Paul first became involved in housing as a tenant activist.
Paul is a qualified teacher, has a degree in astrophysics and is the award winning author of “Hartcliffe betrayed” about post-war Council Housing.
Gilly Tobin
Director, Altair Consulting
Gilly is a Director within the Property & Regeneration team. She has over 12 years of housing experience ranging from heading up housing policy and strategy function for a central London borough through to working in a range of roles across regeneration and development.
Gilly’s Expertise is in Project Management of large scale mixed tenure housing developments. Development and option appraisals, land acquisition, site assembly, resident consultation and estate regeneration/intensification. As well as Affordable Housing funding, strategy and policy, Stock Options Appraisals and programme management.
Gilly specialises in planning applications, consultations, consents, project appraisals, budget monitoring and management of multi-disciplinary project teams.
Faye Whiteoak
Regional Director at Northern Procurement Alliance (NPA)
A seasoned housing architect and regeneration specialist, Faye has vast experience in estate renewal, housing-led regeneration, and Public and Private Partnerships.
She brings invaluable expertise from senior roles at major house builders which, coupled with her background as a Non-Executive Director for RP’s, positions her as a leading figure in the housing and regeneration sector.
With her expertise in both social and private housing delivery, Faye has been instrumental in the design and development of thousands of homes throughout her career. Notable among her accomplishments are the Plymouth Grove PFI and Beswick Regeneration programmes in Manchester, where she led the creation of 2000 new homes and the refurbishment of another 600, alongside new infrastructure and amenities. These projects transformed previously neglected neighbourhoods into vibrant, thriving communities.
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