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A bit of a contentious thought, this, but it has been mooted during office discussion that there have only ever been three new things which have happened in the social housing sector.

These, the thinking runs, were: the introduction of private finance in the late 1980s; the invention of large-scale voluntary stock transfers; and, now, the introduction of affordable rent.

Everything else, the argument goes, is the same as it ever was - if you work in the sector for long enough, you'll see the same ideas floating past again and again.

A controversial assertion, perhaps. But do you agree?

With the world staring down the barrel of a renewed economic downturn, and possibly even a depression, the search is on for stimulus tactics.

Devoted fans of BBC Newsnight economics editor Paul Mason will have spotted his recent reference to Charles Kindleberger's classic economic history, 'The World In Depression 1929-39'. And many are looking back to the Great Depression for clues as to how to handle our current predicament. At the time, Roosevelt implemented the stimulus-focused economics of John Maynard Keynes to great effect. Despite the popular rise of the 'New Keynsians', such as Nobel Prize winner Paul Krugman, there are few signs of Keynsian deficit-spending coming back into fashion among today's finance ministers.

Roosevelt's New Deal established infrastructure spending as one of the most effective ways of providing a counter-cyclical stimulus. Traditionally focused on roads, railways, sewerage and other aspects of the public realm, the concept could quite easily be extended to housing. It is a popular trope among social housing experts that the sector is counter-cyclical - in times of downturn, it makes sense to boost spending on new affordable housing development. But the current government does not agree, having cut the grant funding budget to the bone for 2011-15, and with few kind words to say about the sector.

As Affinity Sutton chief executive Keith Exford pointed out at our annual conference last week, there are few alternatives to grant funding when it comes to the role of housing as an economic stimulus. 'There is no silver bullet that enables us to deliver subsidised housing without subsidy,' he said. 'As a sector, we haven't won the argument about the economic and social benefits of affordable housing. We don't have a well-trodden methodology for demonstrating it, unllike other sectors such as road-building, and it's about time that we did.'

Given the reluctance within government to consider expansionary economic policy measures, it seems that the first group of people whom any such methodology must seek to convince will be housing minister Grant Shapps and his colleagues at the Treasury.

HCA deputy chief executive Richard Hill warned our conference delegates that the government's forthcoming housing strategy will look to the sector to provide just such a demonstration of its economic power. '[It] will focus on economic growth, and how the sector can contribute,' he said.

The opportunity will thus be offered, it appears, for landlords to make their case for housing's role as an economic stimulus. The NHF, CIH and other sector bodies had better brush up on their General Theory textbooks.

Our annual conference takes place on Thursday. After a couple of years of flux, a clearer picture of the sector's future is starting to emerge, and therefore this year we chose the theme 'Mastering the new reality'.

Without pre-empting what our speakers are going to say, we anticipate that the mood will be mixed. The HCA's ongoing AHP allocations mean that increasing numbers of landlords know what their development programme will be for the next four years, and can now get on with securing the sites and finance needed to deliver those goals. Those development directors still in a job are beginning to cheer up.

On the other hand, the continuing global economic turmoil and its impact on the financial markets mean an ongoing headache for finance teams. And chief executives and boards are fretting about the risks involved in implementing the government's affordable rents policy, with a further worry in the shape of benefit reform fast approaching. 

Throw in the UK housing market's yawning geographical disparities and the recipe for an unsettled conference audience is complete.

Let's hope that our stellar array of speakers can come up with some words of comfort, hope and inspiration for the embattled crowds.

It's about time we got this blog back up and running again ... From now on, Social Housing magazine's editorial team promises to post at least once a week, providing commentary on big news stories as well as our usual left-field look at a variety of housing sector business issues.

Social Housing magazine is now on Twitter - you can follow us at http://www.twitter.com/housingmagazine

PS. Bonus points to anyone who spotted the Robbie Williams reference.