Don't just talk about it, be part of the solution to the housing crisis in Surrey. Find out what you can do to contribute to the growing Community Led Housing Programme and how community led initiatives can have such a positive effect on the design and planning stages.

Keynote Speaker - Richard Bacon MP

Richard was the founder of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Self-Build, Custom & Community Housebuilding and Placemaking, and in the last Parliament he successfully steered into law his Private Member’s Bill, now called the Self-Build and Custom Housebuilding Act 2015, to make it easier for individuals and groups to obtain land to build their own homes

Nicholas Boys Smith, co-chair of the government’s Building Better, Building Beautiful Commission, founding director of Create Streets and commissioner of Historic England.

Nicholas is an inspiring and expert speaker who has written extensively on development, planning and the links between design, wellbeing and public support. He’s led ground-breaking research on urban design and community engagement and studied what people want in the built environment finding correlations between built form, social outcomes and valuations.

Paul Miner , Lead campaigner on strategic planning and devolution for the CPRE. He holds an MA in town and country planning, is a chartered member of the Royal Town Planning Institute (MRTPI) and fellow of the Royal Geographical Society (FRGS)

Alison Ward, hub manager at Community Led Homes, and associate at Wessex Community Assets

Alison has been a community-led housing advisor since 2010 and has worked with the National Community-Land Trust Network and others to ensure community groups can be sufficiently resourced and supported to deliver housing for their communities. As well as supporting community housing organisations she now oversees the development of advice ‘hubs’ across the country.