Last week, Oyster Partnership hosted a senior housing finance leaders breakfast at The Wolseley City, bringing together finance directors, heads of finance and non executive leaders from across the housing sector for an open discussion on the pressures reshaping housing finance today.
Held under Chatham House rules, the conversation covered regulation, financial pressure, workforce capability, technology and investment priorities across housing associations.
Despite the different sizes and structures of organisations represented, several themes consistently emerged.
Finance functions are evolving rapidly
One of the clearest takeaways was how much the role of finance has changed in recent years.
Finance teams are no longer focused purely on reporting and control. They are now central to:
• Regulatory assurance
• Organisational transformation
• Technology adoption
• Governance
• Long term business planning
• ESG and compliance reporting
Many attendees discussed how increasing regulation, from consumer standards and building safety through to Awaab’s Law and inspection readiness, is placing significant additional pressure on finance teams.
At the same time, organisations are trying to move finance functions away from manual processing and towards more strategic, insight driven work.
As one attendee summarised:
“Compliance isn’t optional anymore, but neither is transformation.”
AI and automation are becoming real priorities
Technology and AI became one of the biggest discussion points of the morning.
Several organisations spoke about growing use of:
• Microsoft Copilot
• Power BI
• Workflow automation
• API integrations
• Data transformation programmes
The consensus was clear. AI has genuine potential to improve reporting, summarise information, automate repetitive processes and support better decision making.
However, attendees also stressed that AI is only as effective as the data sitting behind it.
Creating reliable data, improving systems and building a clear “single source of truth” were seen as essential before organisations can fully benefit from automation and AI driven insight.
The biggest challenge remains people
Workforce capability was another major theme throughout the breakfast.
Leaders repeatedly discussed the difficulty of finding finance professionals who combine technical expertise with:
• Commercial thinking
• Communication skills
• Accountability
• Relationship building
• Strategic capability
There was broad agreement that finance professionals are increasingly expected to operate as business partners rather than purely technical specialists.
One attendee described the shift as needing:
“Finance people with people skills.”
Several attendees also discussed the challenge of evolving long standing teams into more proactive, commercially focused functions while balancing culture, performance and operational delivery.
Balancing investment with rising pressure
The conversation also focused heavily on the growing tension between:
• Investing in existing homes
• Meeting compliance obligations
• Delivering sustainability targets
• Maintaining financial resilience
• Supporting future development ambitions
Rising costs linked to building safety, damp and mould, repairs, system upgrades and net zero ambitions are all placing additional pressure on already stretched business plans.
At the same time, attendees agreed that much of this investment is unavoidable and critical to both resident outcomes and long term organisational resilience.
Final reflections
What stood out most throughout the morning was how interconnected these challenges now are.
Regulation, technology, workforce capability and financial pressure are no longer separate issues. Each one directly impacts the others.
For housing finance leaders, the challenge ahead is not simply managing compliance or balancing budgets. It is building finance functions capable of supporting increasingly complex organisations in a rapidly changing environment.
A huge thank you to everyone who joined us for such an open and insightful discussion.