Article
How financial planning can help UK social housing associations navigate the shifting UK landscape
Social housing in the UK is facing unprecedented challenges. With 1.34 million households on waiting lists and councils spending billions on temporary accommodation, the sector is straining under persistent supply shortages and high demand. The resulting pressure on housing associations has never been more intense.
While mergers provide operational resilience, and substantial new government commitments promise funding relief, these solutions also present their own challenges, from system fragmentation to new compliance costs and regulatory demands.
How can housing providers adapt to these changes, while making strategic decisions that leave them well-positioned for the future?
The five most impactful UK social housing sector trends that new financial planning approaches can solve
1. Housing association mergers to build financial and operational resilience
Since the turn of the century, UK social housing has been increasingly managed by non-profit housing associations rather than local councils. Over the past several years, these associations have begun to merge in pursuit of financial and operational resilience.
The downside is that many of these associations now find themselves contending with fragmented data, scattered across disconnected ERPs, budgeting systems and software platforms, and old, entrenched financial planning methods. In these circumstances, manual spreadsheets become the default, creating bottlenecks that slow processes and complicate budgeting and forecasting.
Fortunately, there are solutions available for those organisations ready to adopt a new financial planning approach.
Cloud-based financial planning systems like Workday Adaptive Planning provide housing associations with a single source of truth for budgeting, forecasting, and scenario modeling. Replacing spreadsheets with real-time insights and automating data integration, these systems streamline operations allowing housing providers to move and grow at the speed of change.
2. Limited supply is falling short of UK social housing demand requiring reliable financial investment planning
As of March 2025, 1.34 million households remain on local authority housing registers (waiting lists)—the highest level since 2014. London alone accounts for 25% of England's national total, with some wait times extending five to ten years.
While councils spend heavily on temporary accommodation in an effort to meet their obligations, supply continues to fall drastically short. England needs a minimum of 105,000 homes built annually just to prevent the waiting list from growing, yet only 62,289 were built in 2023/24.
In this environment, housing providers need the ability to model different investment scenarios in real-time. Workday Adaptive Planning provided by Strada offers this capability, supporting detailed forecasts and what-if analysis to plan for funding shifts and evolving investment priorities.
3. Rising housing construction costs requiring effective budgeting
In the last several years, construction costs in the UK have increased significantly, and projections suggest that they will continue to climb. As a result, investments don’t go as far as they used to, funding fewer homes than they would have just a few years ago.
This leaves providers facing impossible choices and a variety of uncertain solutions: Is it better to scale back development plans? Or pursue more efficient construction methods? The struggle to make cost-effective choices is ongoing.
Leaders facing these decisions can harness the power of financial planning technology to show how different choices will affect immediate budgets and long-term capacity. Delivering board-ready insights that support strategic investment decisions, modern cloud-based financial planning systems enable the alignment of workforce planning with development and demand, providing the visibility finance teams need.
4. Historic government funding for UK social housing increases the requirement for effective financial planning and visibility
As part of the Labour government’s ambitious plan to transform the UK housing landscape and address the continuing shortage of affordable housing, a £2 billion investment was announced in 2025, aimed at building up to 1.5 million new homes by 2029.
While funding at this level is inarguably beneficial for the social housing sector, it does bring its own share of challenges. Housing associations receiving public funds must demonstrate regulatory compliance and hit delivery targets to show these investments are being effectively channeled.
This means that housing association finance teams must be able to easily track utilisation, model development pipelines, and produce accurate, up-to-date reporting to satisfy both boards and government agencies. The capacity for real-time, accurate data integration and tracking allows financial planning solutions like Workday Adaptive Planning to provide clear visibility into funding, budgeting, allocation and operations, delivering full transparency on the journey from investment to construction.
5. Regulatory and compliance costs rising for housing creating pressure on financial tracking before committing resources to projects
New regulations on building standards, tenant’s rights, and safety and sustainability requirements, such as the reformed Decent Homes Standard, add compliance costs at a time when housing associations are already under strain, placing additional demands on already tight budgets.
The current systems used by many housing associations lack the ability to provide the sort of real-time insights that help providers figure out how to balance compliance spending with development targets, determine which properties require immediate investment, and model scenarios for meeting the new standards while maintaining financial stability.
An effective financial planning strategy that has the ability to deliver real-time scenario modeling allows housing providers to answer these questions before committing resources. Finance teams can model the costs of regulatory changes, understand their impact, and devise strategies that allow organisations to remain compliant while advancing their strategic goals.
The strategic potential of financial planning in UK social housing
The UK social housing sector will continue to face challenges given the ambitios plans they’re up against. Waiting lists will demand attention. Funding will come with regulatory requirements. Construction costs will fluctuate. Organisations seeking to stay agile and take advantage of opportunities rather than just reacting to pressure need to align their financial planning capabilities with their strategic ambitions to be successful.
Modern, cloud-based financial planning systems like Workday Adaptive Planning deliver the essential capabilities housing providers need to truly optimise their operations and drive value:
- Integrated data systems
- Real-time scenario modeling
- Board-ready insights
These capabilities transform financial planning into a strategic powerhouse, delivering the data and insights housing providers need to navigate uncertainty, work smarter, gain a competitive edge, and deliver the homes that their communities desperately need.
