There is a new website for the Housing Studies Association. The impact of this website should not only be immediately visible but it should also significantly enhance how the HSA works for our members and helps grow our membership. We would love to hear your thoughts on the website, particularly any suggested improvements.

This is also a welcome from me. I took over as chair of the HSA from Beth Watts in April of last year. Beth stood down having had an outstanding term, leaving a strong foundation to build from. I am very proud to assume this role and hope to continue the excellent work already underway. As discussed at the last meeting of the HSA Committee I will focus my term on a number of key priorities, namely:

To continue to improve our systems and infrastructure. To build and extend the membership of the HSA. Supporting Early-Career Researchers in everything we do. Strengthening links with academic and non-academic actors in the housing sector. Ensuring financial security of the HSA. The launch of this new platform is one major part of improving our infrastructure and this will also give us greater insight of our membership to help us better engage with a broader, more diverse audience.

We have a number of exciting events on the horizon for 2020. The first is our annual conference in April which returns to Sheffield. This year the theme is on Housing, devolution and localities: Inventing a future or more of the same? Registration has now opened for the conference and there is a number of different options for delegates to pick the sort of attendance that is right for them. The conference is co-organised by Helen Taylor (Cardiff Metropolitan University), Karly Greene (Northern Ireland Housing Executive) and myself (University of Huddersfield). We are proud to draw a wonderful combination of established names and early career researchers, from both academia and practice, to the conference every year and hope you will join us in 2020.

The second major event will be our Autumn Lecture which this year will take place in Belfast, continuing the HSAs tour of the UK. The lecture is being organised by Rachel Creaney (University of St Andrews), Karly Greene (Northern Ireland Housing Executive) and Tom Simcock (Edge Hill University). More information about this event will be available shortly and we will see both established members and potential new ones there.
There will also be a number of other HSA supported events underway throughout the year which are made possible by our event bursaries. This will be announced shortly.

The HSA exists to inform and add to the debate of housing and related issues so please do get involved. Here’s a reminder of some of the work we do and the opportunities available to members:

• Members get reduced rates to all our events, and some other housing sector events with partner organisations;
• Members can use this very blog as a means to disseminate their own news, research and ideas;
• We have an event sponsorship programme to support members to disseminate and discuss their work;
• We provide a number of bursaries to support early-career and unfunded housing researchers to attend our annual conference;
• We are pleased to run the Valerie Karn prize, rewarding the best early-career paper at our annual conference;
• As a learned society, we nominate fellows to the Academy of Social Sciences.

We have a number of vacancies arising on our Committee this year and I would encourage anyone who is interested, regardless of their stage of career, to put their names forward for election. Serving on the Committee is a rewarding and stimulating activity where you get to work with fantastic and supportive colleagues from across the spectrum of housing studies. It is also an exciting time to get engaged particularly as the HSA looks forward to 2021 and our 30-year anniversary where plans are already afoot to mark this appropriately.

That’s all from me for now, but please be in touch with me or other committee members if you’d like to know more or discuss working with HSA to help us achieve our aims, which we know so many of you share.