Consultancy that delivers growth
“Natalie brought strategic thinking and structure to complex work across multiple teams. Her counsel helped us plan more effectively, make better use of insight and apply innovation in ways that will deliver long-term value. I was delighted to have her as part of our team.
Catherine Thomas, Chief Corporate Affairs Officer, Clarion Housing Group
Strategic communications for Clarion Housing Group
During 2025-6, I was appointed by Clarion Housing Group, the UK’s largest housing association, to provide strategic communications support in four areas: Change, Corporate Affairs, Internal Communications and the development of the People Strategy 2026–30.
With regulatory expectations rising, customer demands changing, and internal transformation accelerating, Clarion sought to strengthen how the organisation engaged colleagues with strategic priorities. My role was to provide strategic counsel and delivery input that would build communications capability and embed more integrated ways of working across teams.
Engaging colleagues with change
Clarion’s organisation-wide transformation programme, Connect, was underway but its scale and iterative approach had created challenges for colleague engagement. Having completed a review of internal stakeholders, I developed a narrative framework that provided a clear ‘reason to believe’ and improved coordination of messaging from leadership and across internal channels.
Content was tailored to key colleague personas and activated through monthly newsletters and all-colleague Check-Ins. This newsroom approach shifted communications about change from broadcast to dialogue, increasing reach and gaining positive feedback from colleagues.
9,488 colleagues reached
70% average newsletter open rate
Monthly Check-In attendance averaged over 200
Innovation to accelerate Corporate Affairs
The Corporate Affairs team wanted to embed a strategic, forward-looking approach that would enable the team to be more innovative. I worked with the senior leadership team to improve planning and establish blueprints for integrated campaigning and evaluation. This included facilitating planning away days, delivering a 2026 innovation roadmap and developing proposals for an outcomes-focused evaluation dashboard.
For the Internal Communications team, I introduced practical planning tools and advised on the use of AI to build confidence in using Co-pilot to improve campaign planning, audience insight and content delivery. This helped position the team as a more visible strategic function and developed capability within the team.
A sector-leading employer: developing the People Strategy 2026–30
Clarion wanted to develop a new People Strategy that would continue the organisation’s journey to being the sector-leading employer while keeping ahead of workforce trends. I led the process from research through to Group Executive Team sign-off in 12 weeks.
The project included internal consultation, leadership workshops, external interviews and benchmarking across the housing and public sectors. The final strategy sets out an exciting vision for the future with a clear framework to inspire colleague engagement, development and culture, aligned to strategic priorities.
Why it mattered
My work for Clarion Housing combined strategy with hands-on delivery that achieved a step change in outcomes. It strengthened Clarion’s ability to engage at scale, supported leadership and positioned communications as a driver of delivery, not just a support function. Above all, it was a terrific opportunity to be part of a sector-leading organisation – thank you to all the team involved.
“Natalie quickly got to grips with our fast moving stakeholder and policy landscape to deliver a highly effective communications strategy. This included a strategic approach that won leadership support and led to a brand reset that enabled IGP to achieve greater impact while saving budget. I would recommend to any organisation considering how to leverage reputation for growth.”
Chandni Ruparelia, COO, Island Green Power
Communications ‘reset’ for Island Green Power
For the second half of 2024, I worked with Island Green Power (IGP), a leading utility-scale solar developer who, against a backdrop of rapid policy change and increasing public scrutiny, sought to strengthen communications. A specialist in delivering nationally significant infrastructure solar projects (NSIPs), IGP had a fragmented, reactive communications approach that was inefficient and left the organisation vulnerable to reputational risk.
I was appointed as Interim Director of Corporate Affairs with a brief to establish a communications strategy then build an in-house team to reset the brand, strengthen reputation, improve project level communications and accelerate national policy engagement. I worked with Strategy + Impact associate Charlotte Broadribb to lead brand delivery.
Approach
The six month project began with an audit of IGP’s existing communications, perceptions amongst stakeholders, and reputational risks. Insights were used for:
Strategy development resulting in a communications framework that improved engagement and aligned messaging across IGP corporate and project communications
Brand reset including production of comprehensive brand guidelines, key messaging and creation of ‘new’ assets
Leadership and team engagement to embed the new strategy
Implementation including recruitment to the internal team and streamlined agency operations across the IGP portfolio to improve efficiency and consistency.
Outcomes
The project contributed to a transformation in IGP's reputation by:
Repositioning the brand with a clear vision, mission and identity around delivering benefit to communities
Improving the delivery and effectiveness of communications and community consultation across the IGP portfolio of 13 projects while achieving cost savings of 30-40%
Supporting national policy and local stakeholder engagement with clear benefits led messaging
Securing positive support amongst national, trade and local media for approval of the UK's largest solar farm (Cottam)
The outcome was to position IGP as a leading force ‘for good’ in UK solar development. It contributed to strengthening the organisation’s resilience to risk while strengthening investor and stakeholder confidence.
Natalie transformed the approach and effectiveness of communications at Newham Council. This included implementing a reset of our brand and managing a range of high profile crisis issues. In a highly complex, fast changing organisation Natalie provided exceptional leadership that contributed to the organisation delivering on its strategic priorities.
Colin Ansell, Interim Chief Executive, Newham Council
Natalie’s strategic input marked a turning point for always possible. Her insight helped us redefine our priority audiences and simplify our proposition to meet their emerging needs. We used her advice to strengthen our marketing, messaging then develop sharper, sector-specific content. She has helped unlock new thinking and develop a clear roadmap for growth. I’d recommend her to any organisation looking to accelerate.
Richard Freeman, CEO, always possible
