CIEH Housing and Health Conference

Adrian Chowns Msc. Bsc.(Hons) MRICS, Head of Safer Housing and Communities, Coventry City Council. Adrian is a Chartered Building Surveyor who also holds a master’s degree in environmental health and is currently the Head of Safer Housing and Communities for Coventry City Council where he manages a number of teams delivering the broad range of private sector housing services. Adrian is a specialist environmental health professional with over 30 years’ experience in dealing with private sector housing matters. He is proficient in enforcing conditions in the PRS and has developed and implemented a number of large-scale property licensing schemes focusing on innovative and proactive approaches to securing effective delivery.

Anees Mank, Programme and Policy Lead (Retrofit), Greater Manchester Combined Authority. Anees is a Chartered Environmental Health Practitioner with over 25 years’ experience in Housing and Regeneration, Energy Efficiency, and Fuel Poverty. He is a member of the CIEH Housing Advisory Panel. Anees has led the delivery of over £300m of funding through various housing retrofit schemes across Greater Manchester. He has also overseen the procurement of a £1 billion national Net Zero Housing Retrofit Framework Agreement and the delivery of the Local Net Zero Accelerator (LNZA) retrofit workstream. Anees is currently collaborating with the Carbon Neutral Cities Alliance and the University of Manchester on the development of an Embodied Carbon Calculator and the use of bio-based materials for retrofit and new build.

Professor Caroline Hunter, York Law School, University of York. Professor Caroline Hunter is an emeritus professor at York Law School, University of York. She has been researching and writing on housing law and policy for 35 years. Recent projects have involved research on property guardians (for the London Assembly) and leasehold reform (for the Welsh government). She is a co-investigator on the ESRC funded research project: ‘Understanding criminality in the private rented sector and co-producing solutions.’ The project was completed this year, and Caroline led the work package on housing justice. For 20 years she was a tribunal judge in the Northern region of the Residential Property tribunal. She now sits in the Welsh tribunal.

Dr Henry Dawson CEnvH MCIEH, Senior Lecturer and Programme Director for Environmental Health at Cardiff Metropolitan University. Henry’s research interests focus on regulatory interventions for housing and health. His recent work includes tenant consultation in housing associations, national analysis of property licensing schemes, and authoring of the updates to the Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS) Operating Guidance. Henry sits on the Wales Housing Expert Panel, the Rent Smart Wales Advisory Panel, and the CIEH Housing Advisory Panel. He is a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, a Chartered Member of CIEH, and a member of the International Federation of Environmental Health (IFEH).

Dr Julie Rugg, Reader in Social Policy, University of York's School for Business and Society. Julie has a particular interest in the English private rented sector (PRS) and has – since 1993 – published many reports in this area often focussing on landlord and tenant behaviour at the lower end of the market. Recently, she has worked with the housing charity Safer Renting, publishing the first report on criminal landlordism, Journeys in the Shadow Private Rented Sector in 2021, and a study of London borough experiences of implementing Selective Licensing (2024). She is currently leading a large-scale ESRC project on criminal landlordism.

Dr Kit Colliver, Research Associate, University of York. Kit is a Research Associate at the University of York, where they understake policy-related research on welfare, housing and social inequalities. Working alongside Prof Caroline Hunter, Kit delivered the 'Housing Justice' stream of the research study Understanding criminal landlordism in the private rented sector and co-producing solutions, examining the enforcement role of local authorities under the Housing Act 2004 and Housing and Planning Act 2016, and the Protection from Eviction Act 1977. Before joining the University of York, Kit held research roles at the Scottish Government and the University of West of Scotland. They have a PhD on homelessness policy from I-SPHERE, Heriot Watt University. Prior to returning to academia, Kit was a practitioner in homelessness and support housing organisations.

Louise Harford, Strategic Housing Improvement Partner, Liverpool City Council. Louise is a passionate EHO specialising in the regulation and enforcement of private sector housing with a passion for improving wider determinants of health through partnership working, collaboration and continuous learning. Having recently redesigned homeless services in Liverpool securing £1.9m of investment into staffing and resources and leading multi million pound procurement initiatives to secure good quality temporary accommodation and affordable move on for residents, Louise's current priorities are centred around empty homes objectives, neighbourhood delivery and taking part in Governments test learn and grow initiative to deliver joined up responses for improved outcomes for residents.

Richard Tacagni CEnvH MCIEH, Managing Director at London Property Licensing. Richard is a Chartered EHP with over 30 years’ experience. After a career in local government, he established an independent housing consultancy (2015) that provides simple, impartial and expert advice to landlords, letting agents and local authorities. He is a member of the CIEH Housing Advisory Panel and a board member of safeagent, a not for profit accrediting organisation for letting and managing agents in the private rented sector. He has recently been putting policy into practice by undertaking a full eco retrofit of a period property, with many lessons learnt along the way.

Robyn Casey, Head of PRS Standards, Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government (MHCLG). Robyn Casey is Head of Private Rented Sector Standards at MHCLG, leading on policy areas including the application of the Decent Homes Standard and Awaab’s Law to privately rented homes. Prior to this role, Robyn worked on housing strategy, and on prison leaver policy at the Ministry of Justice. She also worked in the charity sector for nearly a decade, with a focus on homelessness and health organisations.