Earlier this week, at CGI Governance North 2025, Tom Mackrory, Governance Manager at Aspire Housing, joined Joe Harry, Head of Sales at Convene UK, to share the hard-won lessons of governance in one of the UK’s most regulated sectors. Their session, “From Compliance to Leadership: What Social Housing Boards Can Teach Us,” explored how boards can move beyond compliance to embed strategic leadership, accountability, and resilience across their organisations.
Social Housing as a Case Study
Social housing operates in an environment defined by oversight and obligation. Every registered provider is assessed on governance, financial viability, and consumer standards, with each rating influencing access to funding, partnerships, and long-term sustainability. The regulatory framework is demanding but essential, providing the assurance needed to maintain public confidence and deliver on social purpose.
The sector’s governance structures offer a revealing example of how boards can balance compliance with strategy. Social housing organisations must provide safe, affordable homes while adapting to economic pressure, limited resources, and shifting policy environments. As Tom Mackrory reflected, the discipline of regulation provides not just a safeguard, but a foundation for stronger decision-making and resilient leadership.
The Governance Challenges
Over the past decade, housing providers have faced an increasingly complex landscape. Regulation has evolved in response to service failures, political change, and heightened public expectation. Boards must manage competing demands from residents, funders, and local authorities, each requiring transparency, accountability, and long-term planning.
This environment has left many governance teams walking a fine line between compliance and agility. Tom observed that while adherence to standards is non-negotiable, boards must ensure it does not limit innovation or foresight. The Housing Associations that continue to perform strongly are those that use governance as a tool for leadership—balancing operational delivery with forward-looking strategy. Compliance, he suggested, should be seen as the starting point, not the ceiling.
From Compliance to Leadership
A central theme of the discussion was the shift from governance as oversight to governance as enablement. Effective boards use compliance frameworks to create clarity, support ambition, and manage risk with confidence. “Every organisation has its rulebook,” Tom said. “That doesn’t stop you from performing at your best. Governance defines the field on which you can excel.”
Technology and AI plays a crucial part in supporting this shift. Many housing associations, including Aspire Housing, use Convene to manage board operations. Yet as Tom pointed out, the value lies in how tools are used. Digital governance platforms can enhance visibility, improve accountability, and free time for higher-value discussion. Used effectively, they strengthen assurance and empower boards to lead with both confidence and evidence.
Lessons from Housing Boards
The social housing sector has developed a strong culture of stress testing—challenging assumptions, plans, and risk models before they are exposed to real-world pressures. This approach, long embedded in regulatory practice, has become part of everyday governance. It allows boards to identify vulnerabilities early and adapt strategies accordingly.
Transparency has also become central to good governance. Following a decade of heightened scrutiny, the sector has recognised that open reporting and honest data-sharing reinforce, rather than weaken, credibility. As Tom noted, acknowledging where information is incomplete or performance could improve creates the opportunity for learning and resilience. The lesson for other sectors is clear: transparency is not only an ethical obligation but a strategic strength.
Learning from the Past
Events such as the Grenfell Tower fire and the death of Awaab Ishak have had a defining impact on the housing sector. They revealed the dangers of treating compliance as a technical exercise rather than a living culture. Both cases exposed how incomplete data, fragmented communication, and weak assurance can have serious consequences for residents and providers alike.
In response, housing organisations have begun examining where vital information may be missing or voices unheard—a principle Tom described as the need to “find your silence.” This approach encourages boards to look beyond the surface of reported data and actively seek out the gaps that could signal deeper issues. By identifying where information is lacking, providers can make more accurate, timely, and ethical decisions.
This shift has strengthened the link between governance and lived experience. The sector’s renewed commitment to transparency and responsiveness demonstrates how insight and accountability can coexist within even the most regulated environments.
Practical Takeaways
The experience of social housing boards offers valuable lessons for organisations across every sector. Strong compliance frameworks provide the foundation for effective leadership, but lasting success depends on how boards use them. When regulation is treated as an opportunity for reflection and improvement, it becomes a catalyst for progress.
Tom closed the session with a reminder that governance is most effective when it drives action rather than restricts it. By embedding transparency, culture, and stress testing into routine practice, boards can turn compliance into a platform for innovation, resilience, and long-term value. “The best organisations aren’t just responding to compliance,” he said, “they’re using it to shape their future.”
Thank You
We’d like to thank the CGI and all attendees for making Governance North 2025 such an insightful event, tackling the issues affecting governance professionals head on.
If you’d like to learn more about how Convene can help your housing association, join our Housing GRC Community and come to our next webinar: “Using AI to Improve Governance, Minimise Risk & Ensure Compliance”. Don’t miss this opportunity to see how technology can strengthen governance, minimise risk, and ensure compliance!
- Connect:
-
