Dunelm Property Services (DPS), celebrated their third birthday in style today at the Samsung Conference Centre in Wynyard Park with a conference on Affordable Housing which brought together some of the biggest organisations, both regionally and nationally, within the sector.

Over 200 housing professionals, representing local authorities, housing associations and associated professions listened intently to presentations from David Halfacre, DPS Managing Director, Steve Trueman, Director of Procurement and New Ventures at the Housing Corporation, Cath Purdy, Chief Executive of Housing Hartlepool, and Allen Kelley of the Northern Housing Consortium, all chaired by John Craggs, Sunderland Housing Group¹s Strategic Executive. These were followed by Rob Andrew of the Newcastle Falcons who illustrated his talk on Motivation and Team Building with video clips from some of the most famous international rugby matches.

It was, however, DPS¹s day. Formed only three years ago in July 2002, the company now enjoys a £25m turnover with a forward order book of over £65m worth of further work and is now the largest indigenous social housing contractor working in the North East region. David Halfacre thanked the many organisations that had helped the fledgling company in the early days especially the Newcastle office of Project Managers, Hall & Partners Ltd, Stockton Borough Council and Enterprise 5 Housing Association who had given them first work.

Steve Trueman, Director of Procurement and New Ventures at the Housing Corporation, then outlined the Housing Corporation¹s thinking on partnerships with specific reference to the NPiAH (New Partnerships in Affordable Housing) programme and explained the reasoning behind their recent decision to open up the centrally funded 2006 - 2008 Approved Development Programme to tenders from organisations other than Housing Associations and other Registered Social Landlords.

Cath Purdy, Chief Executive of Housing Hartlepool, then explained her own organisation¹s experience of the March 2004 Housing Stock Transfer of 7,500 properties which brought Housing Hartlepool into existence.

Allen Kelley, Director of Resources at the Northern Housing Consortium, concluded the session with a look at the bigger picture, examining the drive for efficiency within the sector which will influence further funding decisions.

The day also saw a presentation of £1,800 to the charity Nightstop for the provision of temporary homes for homeless young people, partly collected by delegates in their Œmoney box¹ invitations prior to the conference.

Following Rob Andrew¹ s entertaining talk - he pointed out that Jonny Wilkinson wasn¹t the only good looking fly half to have won a major match for England with a last minute drop kick - David Halfacre announced the imminent launch of a new venture for Esh Group in Dunelm Acorn Homes which would build affordable homes for sale.

He summed up the day, "It was wonderful to see so many housing experts gathered together and the level of presentations and debate was extremely high. When we started this company three years ago, we promised to do things a little differently than others and today was a good example. We¹ve always believed in a collaborative approach to working with our clients and in challenging traditional ways of working whilst Working Towards Excellence!"