”I’ll meet you, er, somewhere, I don’t know the venue” said one prominent figure to Housing Today. “I’ll need to get used to where to go,” said another.

Thousands of housing professionals descended this week on ACC Liverpool, an unknown venue for many (although past attendees of NHF finance conferences will be more familiar with the Kings Dock location), for a brand new conference in the biggest shakeup to the housing event calendar in years.

The separate annual conferences of the National Housing Federation and the Chartered Institute of Housing have been replaced by a single Housing Community Summit, bringing key figures from the major housing association trade body and chartered institute under one roof for the first time for an event of this scale.