This short blog is a reflection on the recent annual Housing Studies Association conference held in Sheffield (20-22 April 2026). This was the largest conference the HSA has held in terms of in-person delegates and papers (the conference continues with online sessions between 1st and 5th June). It was striking to see the large number of lived experience and early career researchers, as well as many practitioners and significant international representation from Australia, Canada, the United States and from across Europe (not to mention old lags like ourselves). It remains a friendly and welcoming event but also an acute interchange of research, ideas and argument about housing studies.
As you do at these events, one has lots of interesting conversations with people you have either not seen for a while, you have never met before, or different kinds of conversations with colleagues you see most days, but not in a conference environment. It was great to see old friends, the network of CaCHE colleagues from across the UK, and make new acquaintances.
The conference is a blend of plenary sessions, social events and a substantial parallel workshop programme. The first plenary session, ‘Housing in a climate crisis – adaptation, resilience and justice’ , featured practitioners (Patrick Berry from Together Housing) and academics (Claire Brown and Stefan Bouzarivski both from the University of Manchester). These papers connected retrofit to wider asset management, the growing importance of overheating in homes and the important role third sector actors play in navigating injustice and inequalities arising from the energy crisis and the wider need for decarbonisation.
The second plenary focussed on homes as sites where multiple risks converge. Keynote presentations by Rowena Hill (Nottingham Trent University) on housing risk and resilience in the context of climate change, Jenny Preece (University of Sheffield) on resident-centred safety and Chris Kirby (South Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service) on the fire prevention agenda generated a lively discussion about regulation and risk. We’re sure that the Chief Fire Officer for South Yorkshire, Chris Kirby was the first person to present at the HSA conference in full uniform.
There were many fascinating papers in the workshops, including Rhiannon Sims and Beth Watts-Cobbe (Heriot-Watt University) on discretionary housing payments and the legal drafting paper (Anna Pearce, University of Stirling) and a PhD-related paper on attempting to deliver a CLT regeneration on former NHS land in Tottenham, London (Martha Mingay at UCL). There was also an excellent paper on housing and poverty in Pakistan by Sarmad Hashmi (Pacall + Watson architects). Papers by Emma Baker (Adelaide University) et al. on tracking and visualising tenure transitions in Australia, Amy Clair (Adelaide University) et al. on the differences in tenants’ experiences renting from landlords and agents in Australia and the UK, and Robert Read (University of Suffolk) et al on the experiences of Private Renting well-being in Suffolk were well connected in a workshop on private renting and health and prompted some inspiring discussions.
Craig presented ongoing work from his housing and social harm research with a paper on the “predictable perils” of unintentional injury data extracted from the Australian Housing Conditions Dataset. Ken was busy presenting four papers: on the meaning of housing affordability in Scotland; Housing Emergencies and Homelessness in Scotland; the struggle to reform housing taxes; and (jointly with Alex Marsh (University of Bristol)) rent control in Scotland.
A perennial highlight of the event is the conference dinner at the Kelham Island Industrial Museum. Before dinner a series of prizes were awarded to Early Career Researchers. Sasha Eykyn (Cardiff University) was presented with the Valerie Karn prize for her paper on refugees, homelessness and the move on process; Pema Yangzom (Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport, Bhutan) was presented with the Alan Holmans prize for her paper on housing as a determinant for development and health outcomes in Bhutan and Nour-Lyna Boulgamh (Harvard University) received the Andrew Thomas Award for her paper on entrepreneurship and Cape Town’s “Backyard Housing Boom”.
Both of us have long connections to HSA. Craig is the current vice-chair on the HSA board and served as board member in the 1990s. Ken was the founding honorary secretary and was on the original committee chaired by Peter Williams that also had Ian Cole, Ray Forrest and other housing studies luminaries. In those days HSA was just forming but managed to hold two conferences a year across the UK. Between us we estimate we’ve been to more than 70 HSA conferences. It is great to see the HSA doing so well and the conference thriving almost 40 years since it was first established.
