Esri UK and Ordnance Survey (OS) have launched the Social Housing Innovation Challenge, inviting housing associations and local authorities to submit innovative ideas for using digital mapping technology to tackle challenges in social housing.
Entry is free with up to three winners receiving free consultancy, geospatial software and data to develop their concept into a working pilot.
With social housing providers under increasing pressure to balance tenant needs, asset performance, compliance and decarbonisation, the challenge is designed to generate ideas that deliver benefits for residents and housing teams using location intelligence and can be shared across the sector.
Esri UK and OS are encouraging providers to imagine new ways of addressing any pressing challenge, from helping vulnerable households prepare for future heatwaves and identifying opportunities for new housing to predicting repairs faster or revealing fresh insights hidden within existing data.
Winning entries will receive free consultancy from Esri UK and OS to build the solution and free Esri GIS (Geospatial Information System) software and OS National Geographic Database (NGD) data, the most comprehensive data on Britain’s landscape.
Ideas are welcome from any department including Operations, Asset Management, Estates, Sustainability, IT and GIS.
The challenge is open until 30 November 2026 and is free to enter with the winner/s announced in early 2027. Housing associations and local authorities can submit ideas by completing a short online form.
Isabel Clouting, Housing Lead at Esri UK, said:
“Social housing providers are making complex decisions every day about homes, communities, investment and risk. Location intelligence can help them see those challenges more clearly, target resources where they will have the greatest impact and build stronger evidence for making difficult decisions. This challenge is about finding practical ideas that can be developed into real solutions that improve resident services and increase efficiency for providers, whether they involve AI, digital twins or mobile data collection.”
Many social housing providers are already using Esri geospatial technology and OS data to better understand operations and make decisions, from identifying homes most suitable for retrofit and decarbonisation programmes to investing in neighbourhoods that need the most support.
Isabelle Chatel de Brancion, Market Development Lead (Land and Property) at Ordnance Survey, said:
“Social housing providers continue to navigate the demands of Awaab’s Law and the transition to net zero. Which is why access to the right data, technology and location intelligence is critical for understanding, maintaining and improving housing stock. This challenge will accelerate innovation and develop practical solutions that could improve housing outcomes and best practice whilst delivering real impact in the wider sector.”
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