Industry predictions for housing associations in 2025

Housing associations play a critical role in providing affordable and secure housing to millions across the UK, but recent regulatory changes indicate a shift in the sector towards prioritising tenant experience and addressing vulnerability. These changes—particularly those focused on energy efficiency and proactive maintenance—will have a significant impact on how housing associations operate and deliver services in the years to come.

In this article, experts share their insights on how these evolving regulations may shape the housing sector in 2025 and the pivotal role location data will play in navigating these changes.

Regulation will define 2025

In 2025, a primary focus for housing associations and the broader housing sector will be on meeting the UK’s sustainability reporting and energy performance standards, which the government has expressed their ambition to improve into 2025.

An additional area of attention is the Social Housing (Regulation) Act originally introduced in 2023. Certain provisions as part of this act are only just receiving regulation into 2024, offering new considerations for landlords moving into 2025. For example, Awaab’s Law, mandating social landlords to address damp and mould issues within strict deadlines – is still pending secondary legislation to bring it into force, but is expected later this year.

Together, these regulations reflect the continuously ongoing shift from 2024 toward prioritising tenant well-being and addressing vulnerability.

“The new Government has since pledged to deliver the biggest increase in social and affordable housebuilding in a generation, and aims to ensure that safe, secure housing is the norm in both social and private rentals.” - Nathan Ward, Channel Sales Development Manager, Ordnance Survey

With these changes comes an increasing pressure on housing associations, likely pressing them to alter the way in which they operate from 2025 onward.

Solid data foundations will support digitisation

To meet the updated energy efficiency standards, housing associations are expected to retrofit their properties with advanced technologies aimed at enhancing energy performance, while also ensuring proactive maintenance. Given the large number of homes that need to be addressed, how can housing associations do this most effectively?

“It’s within the industry’s best interest to make a property smart in the first place. Not only does this reduce the cost of ownership but drives reduced emissions and enables landlords to repair and maintain this property better. This facilitates a proactive rather than reactive model of maintenance.” - Paul Birkin, CTO, Homely

With housing associations facing heightened responsibilities and social landlords being held to higher standards of tenant care, digitisation is key. By maintaining accurate, reliable, and well-structured location data of where properties are, as well as features relating to their maintenance and improvements, housing associations can address issues targeted in new regulations more effectively. Not only will this support compliance with energy efficiency and maintenance standards, but it will also improve outcomes for both landlords and tenants.

Location data plays an important role in help facilitating this activity. Unique Property Reference Numbers (UPRNs) provide a unique identifier for every addressable location in the UK. This datapoint removes ambiguity, ensuring that all parties are referring to the correct location with accuracy. Linking this UPRN to other datapoints such as EPC ratings, safety inspection data, compliance records and repair requests can provide a unified view of property risks and enabling proactive interventions from housing associations. A UPRN linked to EPC ratings is an effective approach enabling landlords to prioritise properties with the poorest energy efficiency for retrofitting, ensuring resources are allocated where they are most needed.

“Using data such as EPC ratings linked to UPRNs will help associations identify and prioritise homes most in need of retrofitting or energy improvements … Repairs reported against a UPRN provide a full history of repairs. By sharing the history with contractors, contractors are more likely to get it right first time.” - Nick Chapallaz, Managing Director, GeoPlace

A more sophisticated use of location data in 2025

The importance of this location data cannot be understated in the development of efficient strategies for housing associations to manage the sheer volume of properties in the UK, acting as a foundational dataset for many other insights.

"By leveraging data with greater sophistication, housing associations can enhance their operations, improve service delivery, and ensure compliance with regulatory requirements." - Nathan Ward, Channel Sales Development Manager, Ordnance Survey

By using this data strategically, social landlords can enhance their approaches to tenant issues, cut costs, and lower emissions. As the UK’s national mapping agency, Ordnance Survey provides a choice of specialist partners that can support a range of organisations, including social landlords, to find the right location data to meet their unique needs.