27 firms named on £500m social housing disruptors framework

The value of contracts awarded under SHED quadrupled in 2025 compared with 2024. With the framework increasingly used by Scottish councils and housing associations to compliantly procure emerging technologies from fledgling innovators, the new generation of the framework - SHED 5 - is worth £500 million over three years, up from £100m for the previous iteration.

PfH Scotland has worked again with social housing membership community, the Disruptive Innovators Network (DIN), to identify early stage tech firms whose services solve challenges facing the sector but can’t be sourced easily through traditional public procurement routes.

By their nature, these products are new or highly specialised, and this means social housing procurement teams often lack the technical reference points needed to specify them or compare competing offers, meaning they don’t fit easily into established procurement routes.

On the other side, small suppliers have difficulty breaking into the social housing market, excluded by complex bid documentation, high financial thresholds and other tender requirements designed for established contractors.

SHED addresses these issues by offering a simplified, SME-friendly bidding process and a compliant way of social landlords testing and adopting new solutions. Through a quick desk-based selection process, they identify the supplier that best meets their requirements, get pricing information and swiftly complete the contracting process. 

This year’s suppliers offer a broad mix of emerging solutions, including modular housing panels made from recycled glass, a self-testing fire door that monitors its own compliance, a platform predicting home hazards and health risks, a smart heat scheduler allowing residents to better control their heating costs, a long term anti-mould coating system and a solution to help social landlords engage and communicate more meaningfully with their residents.

The 27 suppliers are:

• A2B Rapid Response Electrical – Nationwide end-to-end electrical services
• Alertacall – Digital warden‑call replacement for sheltered and supported housing
• Bays Consulting - Predictive modelling to identify housing hazards and health risks
• Breathe Pure - Automated humidity control preventing damp and mould
• British Gas (PH Jones) - Smart heating controls and resident energy support to cut costs
• Censis Technology Solutions – Digital care platform deploying consumer devices at scale
• Control Flow Technologies Group - Water‑saving technology and leak‑reduction services
• Database for Business – Digital Housing - IoT connectivity platform for estate monitoring
• ECO Genics (Holding) – VASO by ECO - Recycled‑glass housing construction system
• Get Property Management - AI‑driven environmental sensors with automated interventions
• Guidehouse Europe - Decision platform for energy modelling and EPC‑aligned workflow
• Harmony Fire – Auro Self‑Testing Fire Door - IoT‑enabled self‑testing fire door system
• HousingAI - AI assistant for UK housing, with latest guidance, legislation and regulation
• iOpt – IoT enabled housing management solution enabling remote monitoring
• Lumensol - Online reporting tool offering easy ways to interpret asset management data
• MouldAway UK - Long‑term anti‑mould coating and treatment system
• Newtech Energy (NZFM) - Renewable energy installations with funding support
• Novoville – Shared Works – Single online environment for managing retrofit programmes
• Planarific – AI tool converting imagery into accurate 3D building models
• Porters Care - IoT property and resident wellbeing monitoring platform
• Rainly – Housing Perks - Tenant rewards platform linked to rent accounts
• Red Snapper Managed Services – Tenancy risk and fraud detection technology
• Sero Life - Simple and affordable planning, funding and delivery solutions to retrofit homes
• Spotr - Automated stock condition and compliance assessment service
• Voicescape - Digital engagement and income‑recovery automation tools
• Wyser - AI‑generated case notes for housing teams
• ZapCarbon – Solutions to drive building performance, resident wellbeing and operational efficiency

Neil Butters, operations director at PfH Scotland, said: “SHED was created to address a practical problem: housing providers in Scotland needed access to emerging tech solutions, and smaller suppliers needed a route into a highly regulated market. Five generations on, the data shows that this model works.

“We are seeing more Scottish social landlords than ever using SHED to procure innovation, and more SMEs able to scale fresh solutions to persistent challenges such as damp and mould, building safety, digital switchover, decarbonisation, tenant wellbeing, asset management and housing supply.”

Annemarie Roberts, associate director and property lead at the Disruptive Innovators Network, said: “The social housing environment in Scotland is more challenging than ever before, with teams dealing with many here and now issues, as well as trying to be ready for future challenges. Finding innovative, future-focused solutions that can be easily procured is exactly where the SHED framework can help.

“SHED 5 also supports the Public Procurement Strategy for Scotland which aims to make procurement simpler, more flexible and transparent, with a focus on opening up contracts to SMEs and more diverse suppliers.”

Louis Daillencourt, director of housing and energy at SHED 5 supplier, Novoville, said: “We’re delighted to have been selected as part of this framework to deliver innovation to the heart of the RSL sector. Social housing providers do a great job, and they deserve tools that are responsive to their needs in a fast moving landscape.

“Budgetary pressures mean digital solutions need to deliver strong return on investment for public authorities, and Shared Works is proven to save teams significant time and budget administering asset upgrade and retrofit schemes.”