Social housing

Sector experts

Our team of social housing lawyers shares the sector’s passion for achieving social objectives and frequently work in partnership with clients on projects outside the legal field which have a direct impact on the communities they have helped to build. Some of our lawyers also act as board members for local housing associations which gives them a unique insight into the governance landscape that influences the decisions our clients must make. This level of involvement impacts the advice they give, as they are keen to achieve the most successful outcome for all involved – commercially and socially.

Our social housing team spans a wide range of practice areas, but they do not work in silos. Our team is engaged in constant dialogue to ensure their advice is tailored to the needs of each particular client and their ongoing activities in all areas, similar to an in-house team.

The team consider every instruction from the client’s perspective to ensure seamless advice is provided during times of organisational change, risk or growth.

Previous events

HJ Housing Week 2023

Running from 6 – 10 November, HJ Housing Week involves webinars, in-person events, videos and blogs focusing on:

• Governance & treasury
• Housing Management
• Development
• Employment & HR
• Keeping tenants safe

HJ Housing Week 2022

Running from 7 – 11 November, HJ Housing Week 2022 involves webinars, in-person events, videos and blogs focusing on an area of housing every day:

• Employment & HR
• Housing Management
• Commercial Property
• Construction
• Regulatory & Governance

Our Social Housing team’s advice for the next 6 months in these uncertain COVID times

2020 has definitely been a year of uncertainty and change. Having advised the sector for over 40 years, we wanted to use that experience to provide you with a short, sharp dose of focus and clarity.

The Hugh James Social Housing team share their piece of advice for Chief Executives and Board Members of Housing Associations to think about for the next 6 months. What will your focus be?

Hugh James Social Housing team advice for the Social Housing sector for the next 6 months | HJ Housing Week

HJ Housing Week 2020

HJ Housing Week strives to cover the full spectrum of housing issues using our 40 years of experience advising the sector. Running from 23 – 29 November, involving webinars, podcasts, vlogs and blogs focusing on Housing Management, Development, Finance, HR, and Health and Safety amongst others, with guest speakers from Community Housing Cymru, Gambit Corporate Finance and Knight Frank, #HJhousing week has something for everyone.

Housing association finance

The banking team is recognised for its exemplary service, knowledge and experience in this sector. We have been providing specialist advice to social housing providers on all aspects of their funding requirements for in excess of 20 years. We understand the unique needs of our social housing clients and tailor our advice and approach to suit the particular commercial requirements and regulatory framework within which our clients operate.

We regularly advise housing associations on:

• a range of bank facilities for different purposes including acquisition, refinance and development loans
• documentation including Loan Market Association form loans, bank form documents and amendment and restatements
• regulatory, compliance and constitutional requirements in relation to funding

Training

We understand that you need to invest in training. It’s an essential part of nurturing your team’s skills, increasing innovation, reducing risk, boosting performance, as well as giving you competitive advantage. We also find there is no better way of really understanding a client’s culture.

That’s why we offer bespoke training tailored to you and your organisation’s needs. Our expertise across a range of legal disciplines means we can offer targeted training on specific legal topics or give you a more general overview; it’s entirely suited to your needs.

We also host regular training events in the form of conferences and seminars, covering a variety of engaging topics facilitated by leaders in the field. Our training and updates can be focused on a particular issue a team struggles with, and small-scale roundtable where thorny issues can be chatted through with an open and informal approach or more general “how to” guides depending on the needs of our clients.

We also provide online webinar training in addition to our face-to-face delivery at clients’ premises or hosted at our training suite in central Cardiff. All our training is delivered by qualified lawyers who advise the housing sector on a regular basis, with an approachable style that allows “off script” topics to be explored properly when they are relevant to the group. A lawyer facilitator means that learning can confidently be applied to the specific circumstances of a client’s own case studies, taking into account the most recent legal developments and options for strategic solutions properly explored. Many of our clients have also found it useful for us to provide assistance in a project management capacity to help teams prioritise matters, identify which matters can be resolved internally and where our external help might be used most effectively.

Examples of training we have delivered to the housing sector:

• Getting Partnership Working Right
• Procurement and Understanding the Contract Lifecycle
• Contractor Insolvency
• JCT and Common Amendments
• Innovative approaches to housing: modular and modern methods of construction
• The Equality Act for Housing Managers
• Data Protection and Social Media
• Renting Homes (Wales) Act 2016 – What will be the Impact and When?
• Disrepair
• Infrastructure and Agreements planning
• Enforcement of breaches of covenant
• Shared Ownership
• How to solve a problem like the Appraisal
• Disciplinary and Grievance Procedures
• Antisocial Social Media
• Recruitment procedures
• Bullying and Harrassment
• The Role of the Investigating Officer
• Dealing with bereavement as a Housing Management Professional

If you would like to discover more about our training options and how we can work together, please get in touch.