After a long career in social housing development, Meera Bedi joins Future of London as an associate and takes on other new roles. But her commitment to providing safe and secure homes – particularly for women – remains.
Affordable housing expert Meera Bedi has joined Future of London as an associate to work on its housing programme.
Future of London’s housing programme includes managing the Housing Development Academy (HDA) on behalf of the London Housing Directors’ Group to provide skills training to boroughs’ in-house development teams.
Meera will support the council-led network and deliver some training for the HDA in the new 2025/26 programme, which includes new modules on commercial mindset and private sector partnerships.
Supporting peer-to-peer learning
We also facilitate the Council-led Housing Network, which is backed by the Mayor of London, to enable peer-to-peer learning and access to private sector knowledge via the expert panel.
“I’m very excited about the networks because local authorities can work in a silo fashion and there’s real practical benefits to be had from peer-to-peer networking and learning.”
Meera has worked in London’s housing sector for over 40 years. Most recently she was head of new build homes for the Barnet Group, the ALMO that includes a council housing delivery team and a registered provider.
Skills and knowledge sharing to tackle the housing crisis
The Future of London housing programme has been developed to support skills development and knowledge sharing, to help boroughs collaborate on tackling the housing crisis.
According to Meera, the biggest challenge is funding as construction costs rise and capital investment is diverted to upgrading existing stock as the sector renews its focus on health and safety.
“A lot of schemes don’t go ahead because the viability fluctuates,” she says. “There are many challenges getting sufficient subsidies for affordable social rent, so it’s becoming more difficult to develop.
“But if we are imaginative there are opportunities, which is why we need to make sure councils have the skills they need to take developments forward.”
Focusing on women and children’s safety in housing
After leaving her full-time role at Barnet, Meera has developed a freelance portfolio including Future of London and her appointment last year to the board of Refuge, a charity to protect women and children against domestic violence.
This role is closely connected to her previous role as development director at Housing for Women, which creates affordable housing for women and helps them reject domestic violence.
“Most households in social housing are led by women, and it’s about providing safe and secure accommodation. Housing providers need to have their eyes open in the way that most women have about feeling safe.
“Some of the statistics about domestic violence are worrying and there are more children in refuges than women. I don’t think this is widely known and I will be talking about this a Future of London.”
The Housing Development Academy is designed to meet the training needs of the public sector working in residential development. The Council-led Housing Network is open to all London boroughs.