The themes covered by the conference attendees focused on three areas; involving young people, improving performance and investing in your home.

The session on involving young people included presentations from Iona MacDonald and Hannah Nicolson, trainees with ACHA and Argyll and Bute Council respectively. Their experiences of what worked for young people and needed to be considered was well-received by attendees.

Workshop sessions based around the three themes were discussed in five workshop settings with recommendations agreed.

The recommendations feed into the ACHA board’s strategic planning days set for the 26th and 27th February 2020, as priorities for consideration moving forward.

The themes for next year’s Conference were agreed by this year’s attendees and will focus in on how we handle customer complaints, improving and maintaining estates and how to reduce household fuel costs.

Alastair MacGregor, ACHA’s chief executive, said: “This is a key event in ACHA’s calendar involving our tenants and members debating and setting priorities. Hearing the perspective of Iona and Hannah in involving young people was extremely helpful in developing a route map to include young people more within ACHA.”

Iona MacDonald added: “This was my first time attending an ACHA Tenant & Member Conference, and also my first time presenting. I thought it was a great way to interact with tenants and members. Our presentation was about ACHA involving young people. The attendees welcomed this idea, and we received some really good suggestions and feedback. Everyone was very positive and friendly. I had a great day”.