Issue: 64 | February 2023

Welcome to our governance and finance special issue

There is a strong mood of reflection in this issue – reflecting the uncertain times we live in and a desire for leaders to find their organisations anchored. There is awareness of the increased deprivation and desperation in communities, and the buffeting political weather of different governments. The tone is one of leadership humility and self-examination: a social housing sector that welcomes a re-set and needs to locate what purpose and impact mean when measured against a clutch of diffused aspirations.

The onset of spring, of change and renewal, fits well with this mood of relocating a kind of rootedness. Integrity looms large in this issue, whether restoring the meaning of ‘social rent’ to something affordable, or organisations actively welcoming being challenged by residents to change and thinking about how resident voice is heard, or the commitment to ESG and the pipeline of emerging talent through the Future of London. Values-based leadership needs respecting, perhaps even reinvigorating. We are reminded of the toll that leadership can take on individuals in Ros Oakley’s piece on charity Chairs.

We give some space to remember the tools and planning that help organisations find the right kind of financial resilience for them in the face of external pressures – whether financial modelling around rents and the delivery of business plans, the need to understand properly any complex financial instruments or what to think about in making mergers happen. We also link diminishing grant levels to the increased risk profile of organisations in housing through an analysis of regulatory gradings.

This is an issue encouraging you to grow and cultivate what matters and be unswerving in your pursuit of it. We hope it spurs some further, much-needed, discussions.