Nicola Sturgeon is to share her wisdom on what makes a great leader at an event covering the housing sector in Scotland next year.
The Former First Minister will open Scotland’s Festival Housing in Edinburgh next year with a talk with the chair of the Scottish Housing Regulator, George Walker.
However, there have been calls for the organisers to rescind the invitation from housing campaigners.
Activists said that Ms Sturgeon had failed to head off a housing emergency during her time as First Minister, and had been the "architect" of the crisis.
Ms Sturgeon and Mr Walker will discuss and share their reflections on what separates a good leader from a great leader, how best to build teams and how to deal with the unexpected.
A key event in the housing sector calendar, Scotland’s Housing Festival takes place at Edinburgh International Conference Centre on Tuesday 4 and Wednesday 5 March 2025.
The festival will examine topics including Scotland’s housing emergency, homes for life, meeting the ambitions of net zero, how to make a career in housing, the impact of artificial intelligence and action to prevent homelessness.
The festival provides access to a line-up of industry leaders and academics from a wide variety of disciplines.
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Other speakers confirmed for the main stage include Andrew McMillan, former head of customer service, John Lewis, Professor Duncan McLennan from the University of Glasgow as well as parliamentarians from across Scotland’s political parties.
Callum Chomczuk, national director of CIH Scotland said: “We have an incredible line-up of speakers for our 2025 Housing Festival, including the former First Minister, Nicola Sturgeon MSP. Her opening session with George Walker, chair of the Scottish Housing Regulator on leadership is a must attended for everyone in the sector.”
Sean Clerkin, Campaign Coordinator at the Scottish Tenants Organisation said: "Nicola Sturgeon’s invitation to be a lead speaker on leadership in housing is an utter disgrace.
"In her eight years as First Minister led Scotland into the current housing and homeless emergency as she was largely its architect ignoring warnings for years by campaigners on the emerging crisis in housing and homelessness.
"The organisers of the Scottish Housing Festival have made a bad choice of main speaker and this will badly affect the numbers attending this Housing event unless they rescind this invitation immediately."
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