The conference took place in Manchester, where attendees were able to witness the groundbreaking technology The Blackwood House utilises.

The Blackwood House boasts contains rise and fall surfaces, electric sliding doors and integration with Blackwood’s technologically advanced CleverCogs system to help disabled people to live as independently as possible. The House also allows customers to carry out payments and enquiries online due to its digital technologies.

Over 280,000 people across Britain visit A&E due to falls each year, costing the NHS £1.5 billion, while Scotland’s housing associations spend £10 million per year on adaptations. It’s estimated that Britain will have an extra 9 million over 65s by 2041 and the Blackwood House provides a future proof way of tackling the need for more housing.

Investment in the Blackwood House will help the public to reduce the number of falls people suffer from due to the design of the homes, while their accessible nature would remove the need for expensive adaptations.

Blackwood has an extensive development programme over the next five years and every aspect of the house has been carefully considered to remove any obstacles that can disrupt daily life. It features electric doors that slide open and shut at the touch of a tablet, taking away the hassle of manoeuvring around the home.

Development and commercial director at Blackwood, Simon Fitzpatrick, said: “We’re very passionate about the way our Blackwood Houses help people to live their lives as independently as possible. We believe in creating neighbourhoods with the Blackwood House at the very heart of them which and it was brilliant to see so many visitors to the home at the conference getting behind our #ImIn movement. The Blackwood House provides a solution to the national housing crisis and can help save the NHS millions of pounds so we’re incredibly proud and excited to be at the forefront of housing design.”

Conference attendees were encouraged to write their thoughts on Blackwood’s ‘graffiti wall’ while ‘Pepper’ – a robot - welcomed people before Blackwood staff talked visitors through the homes’ features.

Blackwood’s digitally enhanced care system, CleverCogs, is operated through a touch screen home hub which allows customers to control a range of household functions as well as stay connected to friends and family and updated on their hobbies.

The property is also ‘smart’, as lights, blinds, doors, entry systems and heating can all be controlled by CleverCogs. Much of this technology will be able to be controlled by voice.

Mr Fitzpatrick added: “It was a logistical challenge to get a Blackwood House replica down to Manchester but the shipping containers worked so well and the team did an amazing job of getting it all set up and in place ahead of the conference starting. It was brilliant to share our passion for helping people live as independently as possible at Europe’s largest housing conference and there was a buzz around our stand throughout each of the days.”