Northern Ireland Housing Conference 2025
Wednesday 26th March ● The Europa Hotel, Belfast
an agendaNi event
an agendaNi event
The 2025 Northern Ireland Housing Conference recently took place bringing together key stakeholders to discuss the latest in housing policy and look at how we can fulfil the need for safe, affordable housing both now and in the future.
We were delighted to have a range of expert speakers, local and visiting, join us including Gordon Lyons MLA, Minister for Communities; Grainia Long, Northern Ireland Housing Executive; Nick Horne, Wythenshawe Community Housing Group; Kate McCauley, Housing Rights and Rachel Finn, Trilateral Research.
We would like to take this opportunity to thank all speakers and delegates who joined us in the Europa Hotel, Belfast and made the conference a huge success.
Tzvetelina Bogoina is Director of Infrastructure Delivery for Northern Ireland Water. Prior to joining NI Water, she was Capital Programme Director in the Strategic Investment Board and has previously worked as Development Director at Balfour Beatty Investments. She has over 15 years’ experience across key commercial, governance, and financial aspects of developing major public infrastructure, regeneration, and property investment projects in the UK and Europe.
Professor Paddy Gray OBE is Professor Emeritus of Housing at Ulster University. He has over 300 publications in housing. In 2010 he was appointed the first and only Irish President of the Chartered Institute of Housing. He is a regular media commentator on housing related issues. He is currently Chair of the Wheatley Foundation and Vice Chair of Wheatley Homes Glasgow. In Ireland he is Chair of Tuath Housing Association and iCare Housing, Dublin. In 2017 he was appointed to the Board of the Residential Tenancies Board (RTB) in Ireland and Chairs its Research Committee. He is a former Chair and currently a board member of Connswater Belfast and is on the boards of First Housing and Support Services, and Advice Northwest Derry as well as Safeagent Cheltenham. In 2012 he was awarded an honorary Fellowship of RICS. In 2015 he won the UK national award for Outstanding Contribution to Work Experience. In 2016 he hosted the European Network for Housing Research (ENHR) annual conference in Belfast, the first time it had come to NI. In 2017 he was named the top power player in housing in the UK and in 2019 was awarded an OBE for services to housing. In 2021 he was appointed to the Housing Commission in Ireland.
Roger Henderson currently holds the position of Network Investment Director at NIE Networks with responsibility for network development and asset investment strategy. He joined NIE Networks as a graduate engineer and has developed extensive management experience in networks operations, major project delivery and connections of renewable technologies to the electricity network. He previously held the position of Network Connections Director and led the change within the business to facilitate competition to the connections market in Northern Ireland. Roger is a Chartered Engineer and a member of the Institution of Engineering and Technology.
Nick Horne is CEO of Wythenshawe Community Housing Group, a post he has held since September 2019. He is passionate about delivering great services and championing resident interests using large scale change and systems thinking to improve service satisfaction and bottom-line results. Nick is an experienced Non Executive Chair and Director of housing, education and community interest organisations. He is Chair of the Manchester Housing Providers Partnership and works with the Greater Manchester Combined Authority as the strategic housing lead on Data, Digital and information Governance. He is also a Director of Manchester Athena and the Wythenshawe Forum Trust.
Seamus Leheny was appointed Chief Executive of the Northern Ireland Federation of Housing Associations in December 2022. He joined NIFHA from Logistics UK, one of the UK’s largest trade associations which represents the views of over 19,000 members, where he was the Northern Ireland Policy Lead with responsibility for policy, communications and public affairs. Previous to working at Logistics UK, Seamus was employed in commercial roles for several different European and deep-sea shipping lines at Belfast Port.
Grainia Long is the Chief Executive of the Northern Ireland Housing Executive. Previously, Grainia was the Commissioner for Resilience for the city of Belfast, and co-Chaired the Belfast Climate Commission. Grainia was also the Chief Executive of the national child protection charity in the Republic of Ireland, ISPCC Childline. This position followed several years working in housing, including as Chief Executive of the Chartered Institute of Housing (CIH), and previously National Director of the CIH in Northern Ireland. She has served two terms as a member of the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission, was a member of the Lyons Commission on Housing Supply and Advisor to the Best Commission on the Future of Housing in Northern Ireland. She is a Senior Independent Director on the Metropolitan Thames Valley Housing Group Board, a social housing provider in England.
Kate McCauley is the Chief Executive at Housing Rights, Northern Ireland’s leading specialist housing advice charity. Kate has been CEO since February 2023, having previously worked in other senior roles in the charity since 2015. Kate has been involved in housing and homelessness since 2009, working in charities which focus on improving outcomes for communities who are most vulnerable to poor housing and homelessness. She has also served as a Director on a number of Boards in the sector. Kate holds postgraduate qualifications in law and human rights and she is a fellow of Clore Social Leadership.
Jan Sloan has over 30 years’ experience working in the social housing sector which includes roles within the development directorate at Clanmil as both Development Manager and Assistant Director of Development and her current role as Executive Director of Development and New Business. Jan has the oversight to deliver Clanmil’s growth ambition for new homes for social rented, Equity Share and private rental. She also manages Clanmil’s commercial rental portfolio.
Mark Spence is the Managing Director of the Construction Employers Federation (CEF), the certified representative body for 800 NI construction businesses including the leading house builders. CEF has been to the fore of arguing for reform of our planning system, sustained investment in water infrastructure and improvement in building regulations in line with utilities infrastructure. In 2020, he was appointed by the Finance Minister to the Procurement Board which has responsibility for developing public sector procurement policy and practice for the £3bn annual spend by the NI Executive. He is also a Board member of a leading local Social Housing Association.
Greg Wheeler joined Savills in 2003. He has been providing services within the social housing sector for over 25 years. He is a leading authority in all aspects of stock condition surveys and wider asset management, including the implementation of the Decent Homes Standard, Housing Health and Safety rating System, RDSAP, asbestos, fire risk assessments, electrical testing Investment planning, procurement, and stock viability. Greg has also worked closely with Central Government/CLG to ensure national targets are met within these key areas.
Loma Wilson joined Radius as Director of Communities in December 2020 with over 20 years’ experience in delivering housing management services. Loma is passionate about delivering high quality services for the residents, partners and communities in which Radius serves. Prior to joining Radius she worked for the Northern Ireland Housing Executive where she was responsible for the management and delivery of a comprehensive housing and homeless service in South Down. Loma has vast experience in successfully implementing business change and was a key member of the Housing Executive’s Transformation programme which modernised frontline services.
Alan Wyley is CEO of EnergyCloud. He recently spent eight years as Chief Commercial Officer at Luzern Solutions, where he played a pivotal role in commercial strategy and delivered 800% revenue growth. Prior to this, he was CEO of EuroCommerce, where he grew the company's airline and travel client base significantly and ultimately exited to MasterCard. He has also served as Non-Executive Chairman of Staycity, Europe's largest independent serviced apartment operator. In addition to his corporate experience, Alan has previously held the position of Chair of Barnardos Ireland and Darndale Belcamp Village Centre and since 2017 he has been Chair of the Southside Partnership.
Chris Alexander is the Chief Executive of Triangle Housing. Chris joined the Association in 1991 having previously worked in social housing development in England. He took overall management responsibility for the work carried out by Triangle Housing Association as its Chief Executive Officer in 2007. Triangle provides over 1400 units of accommodation and a range of support, care and employment services throughout Northern Ireland, employing nearly 500 people. It is a main provider of accommodation and support services to facilitate resettlement of individuals from hospital and institutional environments to the community.
Gordon Lyons MLA was appointed as the Minister for Communities on 3 February 2024. Minister Lyons has been an MLA for East Antrim since 2015. He has previously served as a Junior Minister in 2020, the DAERA Minister during the temporary stepping down of Edwin Poots from the role and Minister for the Economy from 2021 to 2022.
Jim Dennison has been Chief Executive of the Simon Community NI since January 2014. Prior to this, Jim was Head of Operations at the Chartered Institute of Housing – a professional membership body supporting those who work in housing and homelessness. He holds an Honours Degree in Politics from the Queen’s University of Belfast and a Post-Graduate Diploma in Regional and Local Development from the Dublin Institute of Technology.
Rachel Finn is Director of Managed Services and Head of Irish Operations at Trilateral Research. She is a leading expert in AI governance, data protection, and privacy, helping organisations deploy AI and emerging technologies responsibly. Rachel has co-developed frameworks that support ethics and privacy-by-design, which have been integrated into Trilateral’s own AI products and beyond. With over 15 years of experience at the intersection of law and technology, Rachel currently plays a key role in developing AI governance programs to support responsible AI implementation.
Kirsten joined Simon Community in January 2020 as the Director of Homelessness Services. With a BSc Hons in Psychology and an MPhil in Health Sciences, Kirsten’s previous roles have afforded opportunities for her to work in the voluntary and public sector within Northern Ireland, the Republic of Ireland and London. Kirsten has focussed on project management, particularly in relation to large scale change projects, improved service delivery and the development of new services across previous roles she has held. Kirsten’s commitment to working with people who are experiencing homelessness continues to be a drive and focus for her and the opportunity to work towards ending homelessness in Northern Ireland with Simon Community is a privilege for her.
John McDonald is the Managing Director of the GRAHAM Investment business and Director of Corporate Development for the GRAHAM Group. He has 25+ years’ experience across investment, property development and construction, leading some of the UK’s most sustainable developments, with values in excess of £400m. John has a proven track record in the consistent delivery of successful public private partnerships, offering executive project leadership and applying his vast array of skills in feasibility, appraisal, procurement, design, construction and operation on every aspect of projects undertaken by the GRAHAM Group.