Joined by colleagues, tenants, partners, peers and friends, the organisation celebrated its centenary at Birmingham Town Hall on Thursday 21st November.
The event was a loose recreation of the 1924 Conference on Politics, Economics and Citizenship (COPEC) that led to the formation of the COPEC House Improvement Society, the first incarnation of Midland Heart, in 1925. Since then, Midland Heart has grown from around 200 homes to over 35,000 across the Midlands region.
Birmingham social historian Professor Carl Chinn MBE opened with an overview of the history and development of housing in Birmingham over the last 100 years. West Midlands Mayor, Richard Parker, then took the stage to talk about the challenges facing housing providers in the present.
Guest speakers including David Mullins, Emeritus Professor of Housing Policy at University of Birmingham, Deirdre LeBassiere, Head of Governance and Company Secretary at Parasol Homes, Gavin Smart, CEO of Chartered Institute of Housing (CIH) then discussed the ways the sector can rise to these challenges, in a panel discussion chaired by Martin Hilditch, Editor of Inside Housing.
The panel explored parallels between now and 1924, with housing stock in need of significant investment and recent passing of significant housing legislation. The need to tackle poor quality housing and to build enough new homes remains, alongside the new challenges of net zero and tackling climate change.
Midland Heart has some of the oldest properties of any housing association in the country and is now hyper focused on making these homes fit for the next 100 years. All while continuing to provide decent, affordable homes and offer a better quality of life for local people, just as the COPEC founders did all those years ago.
