Housing associations in the UK are under growing pressure to deliver more with limited resources. They must respond to the housing crisis, meet net zero targets, improve building safety, and keep rents affordable – all at the same time. The real challenge is no longer identifying what needs to be done, but deciding which priorities to fund first, and which may have to wait.
In the Netherlands, Dutch housing associations have faced similar pressures. Over the past decade, they have developed structured ways of connecting asset management and financial planning. This integration enables them to balance competing priorities while maintaining financial control. The same principles behind their approach can be applied in the UK, enabling boards and executives to make better-informed investment decisions.
Integrating asset management with financial planning
A widely used approach in the Dutch housing sector is illustrated by the triangular framework in Figure 1, which links organisational goals, property strategies and financial planning. This framework operates as a continuous cycle, with each stage feeding into the next, ensuring that strategies and financial plans remain aligned over time.
The process consists of the following steps:
1. Set clear, measurable goals
Define what you want to achieve based on tenant needs, stock condition data, and your organisation's mission. Set these objectives as SMART goals, meaning clear, actionable targets with defined timelines for each goal.
2. Translate goals into specific strategies
Decide which homes to upgrade, redevelop, replace, or dispose of, and identify where new homes are needed.
3. Embed strategies in the financial plan
Ensure the financial plan of each strategy reflects both the financial cost and the social value.
4. Stress test the plan
Model different scenarios to see how they affect your key financial metrics and assess how this impacts your overall financial capacity.
5. Prioritise and realign
Make trade-offs based on the social impact and financial viability of competing strategies.
Once priorities are set, steps 2 and 3 are repeated to keep plans in sync with any changes in resources or circumstances. This ongoing loop ensures investments remain realistic, purposeful, and deliver maximum benefit for tenants.
Key takeaways
- Close the feedback loop by embedding step 5 into your business planning process, this ensures financial resources remain under control and allocated in line with strategic priorities.
- Integrating steps 2, 3 and 4 into one streamlined process can be challenging. Our financial planning tool WALS is designed to seamlessly integrate these steps, making planning more efficient and reliable.
- When asset management and financial planning are fully aligned, boards can make clearer investment choices that maximise value for both the organisation and its tenants.
- Begin with high-level assumptions to guide the strategy, then build on this foundation with detailed stock condition research.
Read the original article here.
