Guidance

Social Housing Innovation Fund: prospectus

Published 27 October 2025

Applies to England

Grant summary

Purpose

Social housing tenants do not always feel as though they have meaningful opportunities to influence and scrutinise their landlord’s housing strategies, policies and services. This fund will provide grant funding to social landlords, tenant representative groups and other relevant organisations to test innovative projects which seek to improve tenant engagement with landlords and strengthen resident voice on matters that affect their homes. The resulting insights into best practice for achieving this will then be disseminated more widely across the sector to enable better outcomes for tenants.

Type of grant

Competed

Who can apply

We welcome applications from any of the following organisations:

• Registered providers of social housing (including local authority registered providers and private registered providers)
• Tenant Management Organisations
• Arms Length Management Organisations
• Groups representing the interests of social housing tenants

This is provided the organisation is a:

• Company Limited by Guarantee
• Community Interest Company (CIC)
• Community Benefit Society (CBS)
• Charitable Incorporated Organisation (CIO)
• Local authority

Bids from consortiums or partnerships of the above organisations are encouraged. We will also allow applications from a consortium or partnership that includes non-eligible bodies; however, the accountable body will need to be eligible (as outlined in the list above). Where bids are submitted by a consortium, one organisation will be the lead consortium member and grant recipient. This ‘accountable body’ will be responsible for managing the grant and ensuring funds are used appropriately.  

Funding available

Up to £1 million in the 2025 to 2026 financial year. Applicants can apply for up to £100,000. The indicative amount of funding we will award per project will be between £60,000 and £100,000.  We reserve the right to increase the total amount of funding.

Important dates

Applications open: 27 October 2025

Deadline for applications: 9 January 2026

Funding awarded: February 2026

Introduction

Improving the quality of social housing and strengthening ‘tenant voice’ are key ambitions for this government. Strengthening tenant voice means creating meaningful opportunities for tenants to share their ideas and tell their landlords what they think about how their homes are managed. It also means that landlords listen to tenants’ views and make changes based on what their tenants think.  

As identified in research and sector consultation, we know that poor tenant engagement and tenants not being given the opportunity to influence or provide feedback on matters that affect their homes can negatively impact tenant experience. The 2024 National Tenant Survey found that almost a quarter (24%) of respondents were not satisfied that their landlord listens to their views and acts upon them. We know that there is incentive and willingness to innovate in this area.

This fund will support the improvement of social housing residents’ experiences of their homes and landlord’s services. It will support innovative projects which enhance landlord and tenant engagement and help tenants to better influence and feel listened to when decisions are being made the homes they live in. The fund will allow us to test, and learn from, innovative projects, with learning disseminated more widely across the sector. Bidders must show that their proposals are innovative, have been co-produced with tenants, and have the potential to be ‘scaled up’ more widely across the sector.

The fund considers innovation to be ‘something new that adds value’, introducing new or significantly improved approaches, technologies or partnerships to the sector which improve landlords’ engagement with their tenants, and tenants’ ability to influence and scrutinise landlords’ policies and services. Projects must challenge conventional practices in this area, and respond creatively to tenant needs.

Successful grant applicants will play a key role in helping government to understand what constitutes ‘best practice’ in this area, and to improve the overall experience of social housing residents.

Grant objectives

• Support landlords and other relevant organisations to test innovative projects that improve landlords’ engagement with tenants and which give tenants more of a say about decisions affecting their homes. This could mean supporting projects which seek to:
  • Give tenants  a range of meaningful opportunities to influence and scrutinize; social landlords’ strategies, policies and services;
  • Ensure that tenants’ feedback is listened to and acted upon; and
  • Support tenants to take part in decisions which affect them.
• In particular, fund projects which ensure tenants who are currently underrepresented in engagement and scrutiny activities, in particular those with protected characteristics, are better supported to take part and their views and needs are heard and acted upon.
• Fund projects that will contribute to both organisational and sector-level change when it comes to supporting tenants to influence decisions about their homes, and supporting wider efforts to reduce the stigma experienced by social housing tenants due to their housing.
• Achieve the government’s vision for a social housing sector where decisions are driven and informed by tenant involvement and experience, and there is an increased sense of belonging for tenants.

Who can apply and eligibility criteria – in detail

The Innovation Fund is open to bids which improve the experience of tenants living in social housing, as a primary focus. Social housing in this context is defined in the Housing and Regeneration Act 2008 section 68, which states that social housing means low cost rental accommodation and low cost home ownership accommodation (these are defined in sections 69-71).

All proposals must be co-produced with social housing tenants. As such, we expect that grant recipients should partner with either formal or informal tenant groups to develop and deliver their proposals.

We are open to applications from any of the following organisations:

• Registered providers of social housing (including local authority registered providers and private registered providers)
• Tenant Management Organisations
• Arms Length Management Organisations
• Groups representing the interests of social housing tenants

This is provided the organisation is a:

• Company Limited by Guarantee
• Community Interest Company (CIC)
• Community Benefit Society (CBS)
• Charitable Incorporated Organisation (CIO)
• Local authority

We actively encourage bids from consortiums of the above organisations. Where bids are submitted by a consortium, one organisation will need to be nominated as the lead consortium member or grant recipient. This ‘accountable body’ will be responsible for managing the grant and ensuring funds are used appropriately. 

If you would like to be added to a digital workspace that will allow you to find other potential consortium members, send an email to socialhousinginnovationfund@communities.gov.uk.

We will also allow applications from a consortium or partnership that includes non-eligible bodies; however, the accountable body will need to be eligible (as outlined in our eligibility criteria).

For example, accountable bodies can partner with voluntary and community sector (VCS) organisations or commission private companies (e.g., a tech company) to develop and deliver their proposed projects.

We are unable to accept applications from profit distributing organisations, individuals or informal groups of tenants.

Proposals must be deemed ‘innovative’. This means that the project must introduce new or significantly improved approaches, technologies, or partnerships to the sector which improve landlords’ engagement with their tenants, or which enhance tenants’ ‘voice’ and their ability to influence and scrutinise landlords’ policies and services. Projects must challenge conventional practices in this area and respond creatively to tenant needs.

This could include new ways of delivering projects or services which improve tenant engagement or tenant voice on a local level, and which have the potential to be scaled up more widely across the sector. The fund cannot be used to fund “business as usual” activities or projects that are standard practice and have already been tried and tested in the sector. It also cannot be used to fund something applicants were already delivering or planning to deliver without the additional funding. However, it can be used to expand or build upon existing projects that are already being delivered to bring in new innovative approaches or ideas.

Some examples of projects that might be considered ‘innovative’ in this context are:

• Development of a marketing campaign or a tool such as an application or website for tenants to communicate key changes in the social housing sector, signpost to local community events, crowdsource improvement ideas, and provide key housing contacts. This might be innovative because it uses technologies in a novel way or is designed to reach tenants who do not engage with existing communication tools.
• Establishment of a local union or association of residents, or supporting the growth of existing tenant unions or associations, to represent the interests of tenants and influence the decisions about their social housing and identifying ways to capture how tenant’s views have influenced these decisions.
• Creation of events or a dedicated board to engage underrepresented groups, such as young people or tenants where English may not be their first language, in shaping and scrutinising housing provider strategies.
• Training, sponsoring, or funding the establishment of specialist team of staff or tenants to engage underrepresented residents and relay feedback to providers, improving service access and shaping inclusive housing policy.
• Development of a digital solution that gives tenants access to key data about their home, including safety compliance, repairs, adaptations, EPC rating, and scheduled upgrades.
• A dashboard which tracks the various ways tenants engage with their landlord and identifies response rates and satisfaction levels. This could enable a better understanding of which channels work best for specific groups and across different geographical areas.

Due diligence checks will be undertaken on applicant organisations and consortium members before funding is released to ensure that they will not bring the government into disrepute in the event of grant funding being awarded. This includes checking an applicant’s financial standing and any adverse media or matters of reputational concern.

Funding available

The Social Housing Innovation Fund will offer grant funding in the 2025 to 2026 financial year.

The maximum budget for the 2025 to 2026 financial year is £1,000,000. We anticipate distributing the funding in February 2026, and MHCLG reserves the right to increase the total amount of funding available prior to this date.   

The maximum amount of funding per project will be £100,000.  The indicative amount of funding we will award per project will be between £60,000 and £100,000.  Bids for under £60,000 of funding will be considered.

We are seeking proposals for projects that can be up and running swiftly after being notified that they are successful, which we expect to confirm in February 2026.

We cannot fund work retrospectively, which means that the start date of the project must be after 28 February 2026 and the end date must be on or before 5 April 2027. Applicants may choose to expand or extend projects after their formal project end date, but funding will only be provided by MHCLG for projects which span up to approximately one year, and projects will only be subject to performance monitoring over this time.

Assessment criteria

We’ll do an initial check to make sure your project meets our criteria for funding. You can only apply if you pass the eligibility check. For this, we’ll check:

• That your proposal has been co-produced with social housing tenants. This means you have worked in close partnership with tenants to jointly set the project’s vision and priorities, design the proposal and make decisions about delivery.
• That your request for funding is within the maximum limit of £100,000.
• That you agree to compile a case study following the delivery of the project and to make this case study publicly available.

The scores for all the criteria will be added to give a total score for the application. The maximum total score is 300. Your total score will be used to compare against other applications. We anticipate that 10-20 applications with the highest total scores will be awarded funding. A score of zero for any of the questions will mean that your application is ineligible for funding.

We may undertake checks to verify the information provided in the applications.

In addition, we will undertake financial, adverse publicity, and other due diligence checks for matters of reputational concern against each applicant and consortium member.

Once applications have been scored, we will work with an independent scrutiny panel, which will include both social housing tenants and social landlords, as part of the moderation process to select the final approved bids.

MHCLG reserves the right to vary these conditions and the right to not make an award, and either withdraw or reduce the funding to the grant recipient if reasonably required, in line with the terms and conditions set out within the Grant Funding Agreement.

Applicants can submit multiple bids, however we only expect to fund an estimated 10-20 projects. Once bids have been assessed and moderated, MHCLG will approve a balanced portfolio of preferred bids which will seek to:

• avoid a multitude of projects with a similar approach addressing similar issues
• ensure a spread of projects across England
• ensure a spread of projects led by different types of organisation

Because of this, the highest scoring bids will not be automatically selected.

Section 1: Organisation and Project Information

This section is not scored.

You will need to provide:

• lead contact details
• key information about your organisation
• information about any partner organisations (if it is a consortium bid)
• the name of your project

Section 2: The Proposal

​This section is scored and will assess your problem statement and your proposal to tackle your problem statement. It will also assess the skills and experience of the team responsible for delivering the project. This section is weighted at 35%. 

Section 3: Co-production with Tenants

This section is scored and will assess how, and to what extent, tenants have been involved in co-producing your proposal, and how they will be involved in the design and delivery of the project. To note that co-production with tenants is a mandatory requirement in order to receive funding. Applicants will score higher if they can demonstrate projects are tenant-led, or a high level of tenant involvement at all stages of the design and delivery of the project. This section is weighted at 20%. 

Section 4: Innovation and Scalability

This section is scored and will assess how innovative your project is, whether it can be ‘scaled up’ and the wider benefits it might have for social housing tenants. This section is weighted at 20%. 

Section 5: Costs, Value for Money and Management of Risk

This section is scored and will assess your budget proposal, how your project offers value for money and how you will manage risk to the successful delivery of your project. This section is weighted at 10%. 

Section 6: Outcomes and Measuring Impact

This section is scored and will assess the expected outcomes of the project and how you will determine that the project has been successful and the key performance indicators (KPIs) you will use. Please note that finalised KPIs and targets will be agreed with MHCLG if your application is successful.

This section is weighted at 15%.

Section 7: Declaration

This section is not assessed.

We’ll ask you to declare that:

• all information provided is accurate to the best of your knowledge on the date of submission
• that your organisation will not make a profit from the activities supported by grant funding
• that grant funding will not be used for the purposes of supporting ideological or extremist causes, undertaking political activity or facilitating exclusively religious activity.

Timeline

A detailed breakdown of the key dates of your grant’s process. 

27 October 2025: Applications open

9 January 2026: Applications close

16 February 2026: Organisations notified of application outcomes  

February 2026: Signing of Grant Funding Agreements and funding awarded  

Before 6 April 2026: All funding will have been disseminated

Roles and responsibilities

What your grant team will do, and what the applicant organisation is required to do. 

The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government will:

• assess bids against the assessment criteria
• notify bidders of funding decisions
• provide funding as agreed in the grant funding agreement
• ensure that funding awards to accountable bodies are compliant under the subsidy control regime
• establish and undertake monitoring and evaluation

If successful, the accountable body must:

• act in good faith with MHCLG
• sign a grant funding agreement, based on the Cabinet Office template
• submit quarterly progress reports including setting out to-date and projected spend
• complete 6-monthly evaluation reports
• present evaluation reports at six-monthly delivery boards
• provide evidence of costs incurred, as requested by MHCLG
• put in place delivery processes
• oversee delivery
• be accountable for delivery
• cooperate with due diligence checks
• ensure that any contractors, service providers or partners used to deliver services funded through the grant satisfy due diligence checks
• deliver projects in line with agreed plans and budgets
• share lessons learnt from the delivery of the project with MHCLG
• compile a case study following the delivery of the project and make this case study publicly available
• comply with the Subsidy Control Act 2022
• comply with the Equality Act 2010
• be responsible for providing the scheme in accordance with the UK’s international obligations in respect of subsidies

Apply for funding

To apply for funding, you must complete the application form.

Please contact socialhousinginnovationfund@communities.gov.uk for any questions about the grant.

Unsuccessful applicants may request to see their scores and a reason for the application outcome, but we may be unable to provide more detailed feedback.