Keynote speakers announced for Rural Housing Summit

Robert Lewis-Lettington, chief of the Land, Housing and Shelter section at UN-Habitat, kicks off the week’s main programme by highlighting the basic human right to adequate housing and discussing what this means in the context of our rural communities.

On Tuesday delegates will hear lessons from the USA as Dr Corianne Payton Scally, Principal Research Associate in the Metropolitan Housing and Communities Policy Center at the Urban Institute, examines connections and challenges between rural residence and health equity.

Siobhan McCauley, director of regional services in the Northern Ireland Housing Executive, will deliver Wednesday’s keynote, reflecting on the evolution and continued development of rural housing policy over the 50-year life of one of the UK’s largest social housing providers, and how working with communities is key to success.

On Thursday the Summit considers the issue of resourcing for rural housing, beginning with a keynote from Dr Annie McKee, social researcher in land management at the James Hutton Institute and convenor of the Rural Housing Scotland board, who will explore the lessons we can all learn from land reform in Scotland, and the challenges still faced by rural communities.

On the final day of the Summit delegates will hear from Derek Logie, chief executive for Rural Housing Scotland, about the key role rural housing enablers play in efforts to tackle housing needs in rural areas and about plans being developed by the organisation to combine traditional models and modern technology to repopulate rural areas.

As with all sessions of the Rural Housing Summit, access to the keynote addresses is free. Keynotes will be published here and across social media at 9am GMT on the five main days of the Summit, starting on Monday 22nd February.

The Rural Housing Summit will feature more than 50 speakers in a variety of webinars, panel discussions and Q&A sessions, with community organisations, housing professionals and policy makers welcome to choose the sessions which interest them to create their own bespoke Summit programme.

All sessions are free thanks to support from UN-Habitat and sponsorship from Ecology Building Society, though booking is required, and some sessions are now fully booked. See the website for more information or to book sessions.

A series of online resources and videos will also be published across the week, starting on Sunday 21st February.