The Civil Procedure Rules, which have been in place for slightly more than six months, have affected all areas of litigation, with housing law being no exception.

At the time of the implementation of the reforms, there was much confusion over the way in which possession proceedings should be dealt with under the new regime - and there has been little clarity since.The wide geographical spread of membership of the Law Society's working group dedicated to housing law has been valuable in comparing approaches across the nation.

And it would appear that one of the aims of the reforms consistency of approach in courts throughout the country - is not being met in relation to possession proceedings, with wide differences in approach being found in local courts.Therefore, it is opportune that 15 November will see the first Law Society housing law conference to take place for a number of years.

It is the result of the work of solicitors from across the spectrum of organisations practising in the field, including local authorities, law centres, solicitors in private practice working for landlords or tenants or both, and a housing charity.

The working group also covers a wide geographical spread, from the north east to the south west of England, as well as Wales.In his interim report, Lord Woolf recognised that housing law is complex, and made a number of recommendations.

Unfortunately, only one has thus far been implemented; in possession proceedings, discussions on the financial affairs of defendants are held in private.

Therefore, it is encouraging that the Lord Chancellor's Department has recently formed a working party to look at the existing court rules as they apply to housing cases and make recommendations for reform.A Law Society-organised housing disrepair litigation protocol working party will also start work shortly.

It will be chaired by John Swan, a solicitor at Sunderland Council and member of the Society's housing law working group.

It will include experienced practitioners, and the views of all those involved in disrepair litigation will be represented.Housing lawyers working for tenants and those in housing need have long since known that there is massive unmet need for legal services in the field; indeed, many of us have been disappointed by the failure of our profession to meet that need.

We recognise that some agencies in the not-for-profit sector have built up a great deal of expertise and are better at dealing with housing law problems than most firms of solicitors in traditional private practice.However, the government's consultation paper on the Community Legal Service largely ignores solicitors' firms altogether, and does not list a single one of them among the many organisations visited by the LCD team charged with producing the paper.Those of us who work in private practice were hugely disappointed by this, because we want to play our part in the provision of legal services to those in housing need.

We have been doing it for a long time; in some parts of the country we have been the only ones doing it, and the fact that we constitute only a minority of our profession is no reason to pretend we do not exist.

Above all, it would be a waste of expertise which is rare among legal service providers, to whichever sector they belong.The conference comes at a time of great change for housing lawyers and their clients.

The workshops will give delegates the opportunity to update their knowledge a nd to be better able to meet the challenges ahead.With the Civil Procedure Rules bedded in, legal aid reform well under way and the Community Legal Service just around the corner, we are privileged to be welcoming speakers from government, the judiciary and the Legal Aid Board.