The live panel session invites leaders from across the sector to share facts, offer opinions, discuss and challenge how will we deliver the Scottish Government’s ambitious social housing plans amidst the current financial and housing crisis, and consider other socio-economic inequalities that shadow the sector.
Pennie Taylor – Award-winning Journalist and Broadcaster
Pennie Taylor is an award-winning freelance journalist and broadcaster who specialises in health, housing and social care, and will be chair the panel session. Based in Glasgow, she was BBC Scotland’s first Health Correspondent and has also worked on the news desks of national newspapersA former Head of Communications for the Lothian University Hospitals NHS Trust in Edinburgh. Pennie has inside knowledge of how public services work. This gives her a uniquely informed perspective from which to approach and stimulate debate.
Sally Thomas – Chief Executive at the Scottish Federation of Housing Associations (SFHA)
Sally Thomas is Chief Executive at the SFHA, the national representative body for Scotland’s housing associations and co-operatives. She has worked for several housing associations in London and the North East of England. Her career has also included roles at the Homes and Communities Agency (HCA), on regeneration at an urban development corporation, and as director of a consultancy specialising in community-based development.
She is currently a member of the Scottish Government’s Homelessness Prevention Strategy Group, the Housing to 2040 Strategic Board and the Heat in Buildings Strategic Advisory Group. In 2021, she co-chaired the Social Renewal Advisory Board, convened by government ministers to make recommendations for delivering transformational economic and social change in a post-pandemic Scotland, and the Zero Emissions Social Housing Taskforce (ZEST) which reported on achieving net zero in social housing.
Deborah Hay – Senior Policy Adviser with the Joseph Rowntree Foundation
Deborah is a Senior Policy Adviser with the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, a UK charitable foundation working to speed up the transition to a just future, free from poverty, in which people and planet can flourish. She leads JRF’s work around housing in Scotland, seeking to improve how the housing system works for low-income households and has a particular interest in migration.
Prior to joining JRF, she was a Policy & Learning Adviser with the Big Lottery Fund with a keen interest in all things children, young people and family. Her thirty years in the voluntary sector have included setting up the third sector’s recruitment business www.goodmoves.org.uk, project managing the formal merger of advice agencies in Edinburgh and – even further back – representing clients at employment and social security tribunals.
Find out more
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