Conference Speakers

Elly is Chief Operating Officer and Deputy Chief Executive at Peabody Trust responsible for repairs and maintenance, neighbourhood management, tenancy services, data and customer contact across Peabody’s property portfolio providing 108,000 homes to more than 200,000 residents.  Elly has over 25 years of experience in the housing sector, working her way up from supported housing officer to executive level roles. Elly is the President of the Chartered Institute of Housing, chairs the National Housing Federation Knowing our Homes group and is leading the London Coalition skills initiative.  

Rachael is director of policy, communications and external affairs at the Chartered Institute of Housing. She brings over two decades of experience across central government and the charity sector, with a strong track record in policy, external affairs, communications, campaigning, and member engagement. Prior to joining CIH, Rachael held senior roles at Citizens Advice and in central government, including the Cabinet Office and Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government. Rachael is a passionate advocate for the housing profession and plays an active role in shaping sector thought leadership. 

Toby founded the campaign 1.5M New Homes: The Local Government Challenge, creating video and podcast interviews with councils about what works, and what needs to change, to get more homes built (www.1-5m.co.uk). He is also partnerships director for the Housing and Development Network, supporting council-owned development companies (www.theHDN.co.uk). After 25 years managing a marketing agency, he now undertakes occasional consultancy to help councils and the development industry engage with each other to accelerate housing and regeneration projects. In his spare time, he cycles and is the co-founder of Velocity Magazine, focused on cycling and the built environment industry. 

Andy has been with Hyde for 11 years and is currently the Head of Commercial Transactions, overseeing the Procurement and Accounts Payable teams. He began his career at Deloitte, where he spent eight years as a Management Consultant specialising in supply chain and procurement for both public and private sector clients. His work included strategic sourcing, global cost reduction, and procurement organisational design. He also spent time on secondment at the London Olympics, delivering tenders for the Catering, Cleaning & Waste team. At Hyde, Andy is responsible for driving procurement strategy, commercial efficiency, and procurement regulatory compliance. 

Kris is a Partner in Devonshires’ Real Estate & Projects Group and specialises in public procurement, projects, and commercial contracts. Kris has extensive experience advising contracting authorities (including local authorities, registered housing providers, universities and collaborative procurement vehicles) on all aspects of public procurement law and practice and their obligations under the public procurement legislation.  This includes advice on the procedures to be followed, framework agreements, dynamic markets, in–house awards, and procurement consortia arrangements. Kris also provides advice on the consequences of non-compliance with the legislation and the risk mitigation strategies that can be adopted.