In the 20 or so years I have worked on boards at both national and local level I have been struck by the increasing demands placed upon them. And to be effective today, boards have to work ever harder to balance the basics, such as promoting the sector’s core social purpose, with an increasing need for oversight.

The operating environment for housing associations is especially challenging at the moment. The Tenant Satisfaction Measures (TSMs) create new pressures, particularly around things which may be more complicated to quantify, like ‘contribution to the neighbourhood’. How boards interpret this and hold their housing associations to account is just one example of the added complexity that we’ve seen emerging.

In terms of current priorities, I hope boards will want to take a leading role in implementing the recommendations from the Better Social Housing Review (BSHR), especially those that focus on resident voice and community building. Working with governance teams to access, and genuinely listen, to residents’ voices is always time well spent and is often a primary spur towards better delivery.

The need to keep the organisation financially viable in the face of rising costs and limited funding remains fundamental. Of course, and the NHF will continue to do everything it can to achieve a funding framework which supports members to survive and thrive. We also continue to challenge and support the sector in the field of EDI and we look forward to hearing about your experiences of using the EDI toolkit at our Housing Governance 2023 Conference.

The pressure on boards to do even more, in a turbulent political and regulatory environment, doesn’t look as though it is going away anytime soon. But, used constructively, this context offers the opportunity to do things differently, to become more flexible in our approach, and to ensure our core missions continue to be delivered to the highest possible standard.