London Housing Directors' Group

  • By Alex Sewell

The London Housing Directors’ Group (LHDG) is a professional network of senior housing officers from across London’s 33 local authorities. Collectively, the group’s members are responsible for managing London’s 390,000 council properties and delivering on the boroughs’ statutory and strategic housing objectives across the range of issues, including homelessness, housing delivery and housing management. It facilitates the sharing of best practice between Housing Directors, explores opportunities for joint working and leads engagement with key stakeholders on strategic matters on behalf of borough housing teams. As a professional network it is a politically neutral voice within the housing sector.

LHDG has a monthly newsletter that provides regular updates on our work, the views of Housing Directors and emerging issues for housing in London. To register to receive this, please contact alex.sewell@londoncouncils.gov.uk

 

What does LHDG do?

The group’s work programme sets out a number of priorities across the areas of homelessness, housing supply, housing standards, professional development and cross-sector engagement.

The group takes forward research projects – including recent reports on barriers to housing delivery with the G15 and the home retrofit action plan developed with London Councils, the Greater London Authority and LEDNet – and also convenes sub-groups for focussed discussion on matters such as housing management and building safety. It also nominates representatives of borough Housing Directors to external boards, including the Mayor of London’s Domestic Abuse Safe Accommodation Partnership Board, London Safeguarding Adults Board, and Multi-Agency Public Protection Arrangements Board.

Housing Directors have also taken forward joint initiatives, including Setting the Standard, Capital Letters and PLACE, and co-sponsors the annual London Homelessness Awards organised by the London Housing Foundation.

 

LHDG Governance

Our Co-Chairs are Jamie Carswell (Director of Housing & Safer Communities, Royal Borough of Greenwich) and Joanne Drew (Housing and Regeneration Director, London Borough of Enfield). For further details, contact Alex Sewell (Special Projects Lead, Housing and Planning) on alex.sewell@londoncouncils.gov.uk

Alex Sewell, Special Projects Lead (Housing and Planning)