This month, Involved Customers Ken, Wendy and Barry represented Honeycomb Group at the Customer Experience and Resident Engagement Conference, hosted by the National Housing Federation in London.
The conference brought together housing providers and residents from across the country to share best practice, explore sector challenges and strengthen the customer voice within social housing. Attending on behalf of Honeycomb Group, our involved customers were joined by Customer Voice Specialist Jayne for what proved to be a packed and inspiring day.
A full day of learning and collaboration
The day began with breakfast networking, offering valuable time to connect with other involved customers and housing professionals before the main programme began.
Throughout the day, attendees took part in keynote sessions and specialist breakout discussions covering important topics including Awaab’s Law, Tenant Satisfaction Measures (TSMs), Anti-Social Behaviour (ASB) and complaints. These sessions explored how housing providers are responding to new regulations, improving transparency and strengthening engagement with residents.
For our customers, the event was not only an opportunity to learn from others across the sector, but also to share their own lived experience of social housing. Their contributions added meaningful insight to discussions around service improvement and accountability.
Hearing directly from our involved customers
Chair of the Customer Assurance Group, Barry Russell, said: "I enjoyed the whole day. It was really useful and I got the opportunity to see what other organisations do and how they make improvements."
Involved Customer, Ken Owen, shared: "It was good to hear the Chair of the conference Peter Baffoe's experience of growing up in social housing and how he contributes to his community now. I enjoyed the presentation about demonstrating the value of social housing. There is still a stigma and its good to see how other providers are trying to improve the negativity."
Involved Customer, Wendy Ferns, added: "I have enjoyed the whole day. Customers were on the stage presenting and discussing how they had helped to improve things."
Their reflections highlight the importance of creating space for honest conversations about the future of social housing and ensuring customers remain at the heart of decision-making.
An inspiring message for the sector
Summing up the experience, Customer Voice Specialist, Jayne Tilolo, said: "I felt inspired at the end of it. There was a sentence running through the entire day about 'not wanting to tick boxes.' It was encouraging to see that other housing providers feel the same way about this as I do.
"It was lovely to be there with our Honeycomb Group Involved Customers and to see them meeting others from all over the country."
A consistent theme throughout the conference was the need for genuine, meaningful engagement - not simply meeting regulatory requirements, but building trust, improving services and demonstrating the true value of social housing.
We are incredibly proud of Ken, Wendy and Barry for representing Honeycomb Group on a national stage. Their confidence, honesty and expertise demonstrate the strength of our Customer Assurance Group and our continued commitment to championing the customer voice in everything we do.
Click here to learn more about Honeycomb Group's Customer Involvement work.
