Housing minister to speak at HMI conference

Housing minister Rachel Maclean is to speak at this year’s annual Housing Market Intelligence conference (HMI) in October.

Maclean joins a strong line up of speakers which also includes Taylor Wimpey chief executive Jennie Daly, Nationwide chief economist Robert Gardner and Sunday Times economics editor David Smith.

The confirmation of the housing minister’s appearance at HMI comes as the government is today (Monday July 24) expected to reconfirm its commitment to building one million homes in this parliament up to 2024. In a speech later today prime minister Rishi Sunak and housing secretary Michael Gove will announce changes to planning rules to make new homes easier to develop, with the focus of development to be in cities rather than the countryside.

The October HMI conference will analyse these changes as well as discussing all aspects of the industry. Mark Farmer, ceo of Cast Consultancy, will look at the MMC sector and Geeta Nanda, ceo of Metropolitan Thames Valley Housing, will discuss the housing association landscape. There will also be presentations by Robert Colville, director of The Centre for Policy Studies, and Tom Bill, head of UK residential research at Knight Frank while AF Oliver executive chairman Matt Fleming …