How housing association mergers affect communications teams

The more Housing Associations I speak to, the more I hear just how mergers are becoming the new normal across the UK housing sector. For tenants, they often mean greater investment, more stability, and stronger services. For leaders, they promise resilience in a challenging landscape.

But behind every announcement, your communications, customer service, marketing, and content teams face a new reality. Their role isn’t just to share the news, it’s to keep residents informed, reassured, and engaged throughout a time of big change. And that comes with its own pressures.

It’s likely that decision makers are focused on the bigger picture, be it securing funding, scaling services, and ensuring the merger delivers value. But comms teams are on the frontline of that vision.

They’re managing new team dynamics, adjusting to fresh reporting lines, and balancing legacy goals with newly set organisational objectives. Add in bigger budgets and a wider pool of tenants,often with new demographics and needs, and the demands grow quickly.

Without clarity and support, even the most capable comms teams risk burnout or inconsistency. That’s why leaders must recognise both the challenges these teams are facing, and the fact that they are the ones carrying the message to residents every day. Ensuring they have the right backing is critical to making the merger a success.

When two organisations become one, as leaders, it’s important to understand that comms teams will face some challenges that might seem daunting at first. However when broken down alongside actionable steps, these can feel more manageable.

Shifting objectives:

The strategic priorities that once guided a team’s work can be replaced overnight. Instead of focusing on longstanding, familiar goals, comms professionals must now align their efforts with a broader, unified vision. This means re-evaluating everything from campaign narratives to brand messaging, to ensure they serve the new, combined organisation’s mission and objectives.

Fresh collaboration: 

Teams that once operated independently must now learn to work together seamlessly. This involves more than just sharing an office; it means integrating workflows, standardising tools, and establishing new approval processes. Building this new collaborative environment requires open communication and a willingness to adapt, as people accustomed to different methods and cultures come together to form a single, cohesive unit.

Wider audiences: 

A merger often means a significant expansion of the audience. For a housing association, this could mean reaching thousands of new tenants. The comms team must adjust its tone, platforms, and engagement strategies to connect with this larger, more diverse group. This requires a deeper understanding of the new audience’s needs and preferences to ensure communication is relevant and effective.

Pressure to deliver: 

When there’s an increase in scale, there’s usually an increase in expectation not far behind. Larger budgets and a more prominent public profile mean higher expectations and more ambitious objectives. Comms teams are under pressure to not only maintain the quality of their work but to deliver more impactful results that justify the investment and demonstrate the value of the unified organisation.

These challenges can sometimes mean that it feels like running a marathon at sprint pace, all while trying to maintain trust with residents. If it feels overwhelming, you are not alone. Across the public sector, comms professionals are carrying an incredible weight, often with limited resources and rising expectations. It can be tough to keep morale high while also protecting the trust of the communities you serve. Acknowledging these pressures is the first step to making sure teams feel supported and valued as they navigate this change.

Handled well, mergers can unlock new opportunities for communications leaders and their teams.

With greater scale comes the chance to deliver more ambitious campaigns, share more authentic tenant stories, and experiment with fresh ideas. A larger team brings new perspectives, while a bigger budget can unlock tools and strategies that weren’t possible before.

And it doesn’t always take major investment to make an impact. Often, just getting under the skin of your tenants and sharing local people’s stories is the way to generate maximum impact. One Orlo customer, the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, demonstrated this with their #TowerHamletsMoments campaign. By celebrating community highlights and local stories, they organically generated over 150,000 impressions and 35,000+ video views proving that authentic, resident‑focused engagement resonates even without heavy spending. 

The lesson is simple: when teams have the tools and freedom to focus on meaningful engagement, trust grows, even in times of transition.

Building trust in times of change is as much about listening as it is about speaking. Residents notice when their concerns are heard, understood and acted upon, and it is that cycle which strengthens confidence in your organisation. During a merger, getting this balance right can make the difference between uncertainty and reassurance. It all starts with open, honest communication, which is why we talk about trust not as a single action but as a journey, something we explore in Orlo’s Trust Pyramid blog with Jack Fox.

Listening to tenants on social media provides a direct source of unfiltered, real time feedback. By monitoring these conversations, particularly during mergers, housing associations can quickly identify emerging trends, issues and underlying tenant sentiment. They’ll also be able to gauge reactions to these mergers and new policies more effectively. A proactive listening approach where associations really hear the problems of their tenants will allow comms teams to address concerns before they escalate, improve services based on genuine community needs and demonstrate a commitment to transparency and trust with their residents.

Social media listening is a great place to start, and it’s important to consider which channels you use for this. Many housing associations are stepping away from Twitter (now X), but that doesn’t mean tenant conversations stop. Our blog on whether the time has come to leave X showcases that despite concerns about misinformation, X remains a widely used platform that could be a vital tool for real-time communication and a place where organisations can gather public insights and manage their reputation. This is where listening tools become critical. Even without posting, comms teams can monitor mentions, track sentiment, and respond before small concerns escalate. For leaders, it’s an invaluable way to stay connected to tenant voices without adding noise.

At Orlo, we work closely with public sector organisations, including over 45 housing associations, navigating exactly these pressures. Our platform is designed to help comms and service teams thrive through change:

• • Social listening as mentioned above is vital. It even works on platforms you’ve left, so no tenant voice goes unheard.
    
  • Unified dashboards and reporting, giving leaders a clear view of sentiment, reach, and progress across all channels that will allow teams to showcase just how well their comms is performing to possible new leadership and managers in the face of mergers
    
  • AI tagging and segmentation which will help teams automatically tag incoming messages and identify key topics as well as segment their audience by demographic. This means you’ll be able to see exactly which topics are affecting which people, allowing you to tailor your responses to each group of tenants.
  • Shared inboxes between comms and customer service, so residents always get timely, consistent responses.

In short: we make it easier for your teams to adapt quickly, stay aligned, and continue building trust, no matter how complex the change.

Mergers reshape more than structures; they redefine how your organisation communicates with the people who rely on you most. For tenants, that can be a good thing. For comms teams, it’s a challenge but also a great chance to shine.

By giving your teams the tools and support they need, you won’t  just be helping them manage the change, you’ll be there to help turn it into a moment of growth and impact.

If your organisation is navigating a merger and you want to see how others in the public sector are tackling these challenges, join us at The Big Social this October,a free Orlo event designed for comms leaders and their teams. Or, if you can’t wait until then, book a chat with one of our expert consultants to discover how Orlo can help you make the most out of your merger.