Risks and how to manage them in 2025

Governance, and the coveted G1 grade from the Regulator of Social Housing, are key priorities for most organisations. But the bar may yet shift in this area, according to Craig Thornton, risk and assurance director at SNG. “I do expect the regulator to have to raise its expectations of what good governance looks like and the role that risk management plays as part of your governance,” he says. “I expect to see the regulator’s expectations of what it takes to get that G1 rise as well.”

Many around the table feel that the sector – at least parts of it – has its “head in the sand” when it comes to longer-term challenges such as stock regeneration.

Phil Andrew, group chief executive at housing association Orbit, says that people are working hard to “get to the end of the week, or the end of the month, or the end of the quarter”.

“And actually, we’ve got to make sure that we’ve got an executive team who are looking out to 2050, 2060, 2065.”

Most agree that this long-term view, beyond current election cycles and the working life of today’s boards, should be influencing decisions now – however difficult that might be.

Political volatility is something that Paul Edwards, chief executive of CHP, identifies as a risk to his organisation as it plans to merge with Estuary Housing Association to become one of the largest housing associations in the East of England.

“One of our anchors in our merger process is to be able to deliver more new homes than we could do as separate entities in Essex,” he says. This will entail working with the mayor of Greater Essex (to be elected in May 2026), “so national and local politics changing constantly is a real challenge”.

While the sector seems to be able to identify, articulate and track risks, how is it mitigating them?

Those in attendance agreed that while specialist risk teams are growing in maturity, risk must be “everyone’s job” within organisations – from the board downwards. This means building a culture of managing – and being aware of – risk.

“If we don’t have that level of understanding from the top of the organisation, which flows through all levels of the organisation, I think that will be a significant concern going forward,” says Mr Clemmit.

SNG has been on a journey to improve its approach to risk and become more resilient. A key part of this, says Mr Thornton, is “using language that’s really relevant and couching it in a way that’s consumable by the different parts of the organisation”.

He says it is possible, as a risk professional, to have conversations with business leaders on their terms about objectives, risk controls and assurance without ever having to use these terms directly.

At Places for People, risk-aware language is in “the vernacular of our organisation”, says chief risk officer Judy Hardy.

“We have a culture and a principle where we’ll say, ‘Don’t walk by, do the right thing,’” she says. “That allows us to have all of those eyes and ears out there understanding very practically how these risks could be manifesting in our customers’ homes, or in our operations generally.”

Katie Shaw, head of risk and assurance at L&Q, explains that her organisation has considered how risk feeds into the company’s core strategy. This has a tangible impact on decision-making, allowing leaders to say, “Look, we’d love to do everything. But these are the risk appetites we’ve set, and this is how we’re going to make decisions, particularly when challenges come, particularly around finances – we have to make those decisions based on pre-agreed risk appetites.”

The affordable housing sector provides jobs to thousands of people and homes to millions. Knowing more about these groups can help providers predict potential risks.

Tom Robins, chief executive of Switchee, notes that as the requirements to qualify for a social or affordable home have changed over time, “the people that are leaving are a very different profile from the people that are coming in”.

“That’s making it much more complex to operate and bringing a different set of… risks that perhaps we haven’t seen before,” he says.

When it comes to risk management teams, Ms Shaw recognises that “getting the right people is crucial”. But she says that risk expertise is concentrated in finance and other industries, leading to recruitment challenges.

Gary Fulford, group chief executive of WHG, meanwhile, has spoken with other CEOs about the “real danger” of “passing [staff] around, or pinching people off other housing associations”. He describes the sector’s tendency to do so as “a bit of a merry-go-round”.

At Orbit, leaders have focused on becoming more customer-centric and have begun hiring accordingly.