about us
Ground Up Consulting is a specialist consultancy serving the UK affordable housing sector. We are two senior practitioners, working independently under a shared brand, with complementary expertise across asset management and housing development.
our story
Ground Up Consulting was founded on a straightforward observation. The affordable housing sector faces some of its most demanding regulatory and operational challenges in a generation, at the same time as experienced senior practitioners are increasingly hard to find.
We built GUP to meet that gap directly. Not as a large consultancy with a broad offer, but as a focused practice led by senior people who have done the work themselves, in the regulatory environment that exists today, and who bring that experience to bear for clients who need it.
Both principals come to consultancy from practitioner backgrounds. We have sat on the client side of the engagements we now lead. We understand what good looks like because we have had to deliver it, and we understand what is at stake when it falls short.
That both-sides-of-the-table perspective is the foundation of everything we do.
We also believe that AI has a genuine and practical role to play in how housing organisations work. Not as a replacement for experienced people, but as a tool that makes them more productive, helps teams deliver better services to tenants, and frees up capacity for the work that actually requires human judgement.
There is an urgency to this that the sector has not yet fully absorbed. AI is already changing the power balance between landlords and tenants. Residents can now use AI tools to draft legally precise complaint letters, organise evidence timelines, and escalate to the Housing Ombudsman faster and more effectively than ever before.
The Housing Ombudsman's own guidance is clear that this does not dilute a landlord's duties, it sharpens them.
Landlords who are not using AI to match that capability risk being outpaced by the very tenants they serve. In practice, deploying AI well means being able to analyse complex complaints at speed, structure coherent responses to multi-issue cases, identify patterns across repair histories before they escalate, and produce well-structured first drafts that a practitioner can review and refine, all at a pace that the new regulatory environment demands.
The sector is understandably cautious about AI, and there is a great deal of noise around it. We know that territory well.
We work with clients to cut through it, understand what AI can and cannot do, and put it to work safely, practically, and at a pace that suits them.
ola onabajo
Consulting Principal — Asset Management Practice, Asset Management IT Consultancy, Bid Writing and Procurement Support, AI Training Programme
Ola is a senior asset management practitioner with over 25 years of experience in UK affordable housing, spanning local authority, ALMO, registered provider, and housing association settings.
Until recently, Ola was Service Manager: Asset Management, at a major UK local authority, leading the asset management function across a housing stock of around 16,000 homes, alongside a corporate, education, heritage, and commercial portfolio of a further 600 to 700 assets. Her role covered strategic asset management planning across both housing and corporate portfolios, statutory compliance management across all six regulated disciplines, capital investment programming, and senior project sponsorship for major asset management IT implementations. She has authored Strategic Asset Management Plans securing Cabinet-level approval, delivered Decent Homes programmes to completion, and acted as senior responsible owner for technology implementations across multiple platforms — including NEC Assets, C365, and TechnologyForge.
Alongside her asset management practice, Ola brings over 20 years of experience as a procurement client and evaluation panel member across major contracts in affordable housing. She has written winning bids on the supplier side and evaluated them on the client side. That both-sides-of-the-table perspective is the foundation of GUP's Bid Writing and Procurement Support service.
Central to that service is BidMind — a proprietary AI-assisted bid development system conceived and built by Ola. BidMind draws on an organisation's own winning bid content to produce first drafts that arrive substantially complete, structured around the scoring matrix, and ready to refine rather than write from scratch. It compounds in value with every tender, building a knowledge base that gets sharper over time. It is unlike any other bid development approach in the market.
Ola also leads GUP's AI Training Programme, a CPD-accredited course delivered internationally to SMEs, NGOs, and graduates.
The programme is built around three connected aims:
helping people understand what AI is and what it is not
showing how AI can make organisations more productive without replacing the expertise that makes them effective
and building the practical confidence to use AI purposefully rather than fearfully
The programme is designed for people who are curious but cautious, and who want to put AI to work in their organisations in a way that is grounded, safe, and sustainable.
She holds a Postgraduate Certificate in Business Management (Bournemouth University), a BSc (Hons) Construction Management (Solent University), and a Cambridge CELTA qualification.
Through GUP, Ola leads the Asset Management Practice, Asset Management IT Consultancy, Bid Writing and Procurement Support, and AI Training Programme service lines.
fiona astin
Consulting Principal — Affordable Housing Development Mentoring, Development Financial Appraisals, Affordable Housing Advice, Site Value Optimisation
Fiona Astin brings over 35 years of experience in affordable housing development, regeneration, and strategic delivery across the registered provider, local authority, and private sectors.
She began her career in housing development and regeneration roles across housing associations and local authorities, before joining Aster Group where she served as Regional Development Director for a decade. In that role she led teams delivering a third of Aster's 1,000-home annual development programme, overseeing Extra Care, cohousing, community-led housing, S.106, and land-led schemes, and managing strategic partnerships with local authorities and private developers. She has been an independent consultant since 2015, building a practice that spans the full development lifecycle across a wide client base in southern England and beyond.
Her consultancy work covers large-scale regeneration programmes, complex S.106 negotiations, Extra Care and community-led housing delivery, public sector funding bids, and financial appraisal. She has secured significant grant funding, led compulsory purchase processes, and delivered projects from inception through to completion across both registered provider and local authority settings.
Through GUP, Fiona offers four services. Her Affordable Housing Development Mentoring supports development professionals and teams building capability and confidence in housing delivery. Her Development Financial Appraisals service provides rigorous viability and investment analysis using industry-standard tools. Her Affordable Housing Advice service offers strategic and operational guidance to clients navigating complex delivery challenges. And her Site Value Optimisation work helps landowners and developers maximise the affordable housing potential of their sites.
Fiona is also one of a small number of senior housing practitioners who has genuinely integrated AI tools into her consultancy practice — not as an experiment, but as a working method. She brings that capability directly to clients, applying it to research, financial modelling, business development, and drafting in ways that increase both the quality and pace of delivery.
She holds a Postgraduate Certificate in Sustainable Business from Cambridge University and a BSc (Hons) in Land Management. She serves as a board member of Tonic Housing, the UK's first LGBTQ+ affirming retirement housing provider, where she leads on risk management.
work with us
If you would like to discuss how we might help your organisation, we would welcome a conversation.