The CIH podcast

2023 was a big year for housing and 2024 is looking to be no different. With a general election on the way and lots of competing priorities, CIH director of policy and external affairs James Prestwich sits down with Callum Chomczuk, CIH Scotland national director, Justin Cartwright, CIH Northern Ireland national director, Matt Dicks, CIH Cymru national director and Rachael Williamson, head of policy and external affairs for England to discuss some of the biggest challenges and opportunities for the year ahead.

CIH head of policy and external affairs Rachael Williamson is joined by a fantastic panel for a conversation marking the end of the 16 days of activism to end violence against women and girls - reflecting on the role that housing professionals can play in helping tackle domestic abuse.Rachael is joined by Callum Chomczuk, CIH Scotland director, Judith Vickress, senior housing manager for Standing Together Against Domestic Abuse and the Domestic Abuse Housing Alliance (DAHA) and two former CIH presidents, Alison Inman and Jim Strang who both campaigned for housing professionals to take the #MakeAStand pledge.

In our next episode of the CIH podcast, CIH policy and practice officer Hannah Keilloh is joined by two very special guests, Nicole Jacobs, domestic abuse commissioner for England and Wales and Deidre Cartwright, senior housing manager at the Domestic Abuse Housing Alliance (DAHA), to discuss the links between anti-social behaviour and domestic abuse.At CIH it's our belief that everyone has aright to a safe, affordable and secure home, and yet we know for the victims and survivors of domestic abuse, including children, home is often the most dangerous place. By its very nature, domestic abuse is a housing issue, directly impacting on a survivor's right for a life free of violence and abuse and the right to a safe and stable home.

Welcome to the second episode of our new CIH podcast series, Doing it on purpose, hosted by CIH director of membership and business development, Josie Twinning.In this podcast we’ll dive into conversations with women about work. It seeks to share stories, experiences, wisdom and all the messiness too. A space for women to belong, reflect and get lost in as we ‘find out who we are and do it on purpose’, these are words of the most rightly revered Dolly Parton.In today's episode, Josie catches up with clown, best-selling author and co-founder of Laugh, Think and Play Em Stroud. Josie and Em discuss a little bit of everything, from what it means to be a mum, looking after our bodies as we continue to recover from COVID, and the real meaning of play.

Welcome to the first episode of our new CIH podcast series, Doing it on purpose, hosted by CIH director of membership and business development, Josie Twinning. In this podcast we’ll dive into conversations with women about work. It seeks to share stories, experiences, wisdom and all the messiness too. A space for women to belong, reflect and get lost in as we ‘find out who we are and do it on purpose’, these are words of the most rightly revered Dolly Parton.In the first episode of the series, coinciding with International Women’s Day 2023, Josie sits down and speaks to Kate Still, former housing CEO/COO and founder of The Good Girl Survival Club, a development programme for women who want to survive and thrive at work. Their focus on transforming the understanding of cultural gender bias in organisations and individuals, plus the work they do to help women become their true selves is exactly why Kate has joined us our first guest. ResourcesFind out more about The Good Girl Survival Club The British Psychological Society, ‘The medical model has presided over four decades of flat-lining outcomes’.

2022 was quite a year. Alongside the tragic outbreak of war in Ukraine which triggered a new wave of refugees, we saw a fast-growing cost of living - and in turn housing - crisis, a heat wave followed by record levels of fuel poverty, and unprecedented political upheaval (three Prime Ministers and five housing ministers).CIH director of policy and external affairs James Prestwich sits down with Callum Chomczuk, CIH Scotland national director, Justin Cartwright, CIH Northern Ireland national director, Matt Dicks, CIH Cymru national director and Rachael Williamson, head of policy and external affairs for England to dissect some of the biggest challenges from 2022 and opportunities for the year ahead.You can find more information on the Better Social Housing Review here: https://www.cih.org/policy/independent-panel-to-help-tackle-poor-quality-homes.

Ahead of the Chancellor’s Autumn Statement, Rachael Williamson, CIH’s head of policy, talks to some of the UK Housing Review team about the housing market – exploring whether it’s all bad news or if there is scope for optimism. She’s joined by Peter Williams, Departmental Fellow at Cambridge University and a well-known expert on the private housing market, Bob Pannell, an economist and respected analyst of housing and mortgage markets, and John Perry, senior policy advisor at CIH. The podcast unpacks some of the analysis set out in the UK Housing Review, which had its autumn briefing launch earlier this month and is a fantastic resource for all things housing. 

CIH director of policy and external affairs James Prestwich sits down with the newly inaugurated CIH president, Lara Oyedele. At CIH, our presidential team is a super important to our mission to support housing professionals to create a future in which everyone has a place to call home. As an inspirational figure for the sector, the CIH president often provides "challenge" for improvement which is exactly what Lara will do during her time in office. Lara’s presidential campaign, In my shoes, seeks to raise awareness of the importance of racial diversity in the housing sector, drawing on Lara’s lived experience of the housing sector and racial adversity. The campaign will challenge the lack of ethnic and racial diversity in the boardrooms of housing organisations, providing a catalyst to galvanise positive change.