Social Housing Innovation Fund
The Social Housing Innovation Fund provides £1 million funding to support innovative projects which enhance tenants' engagement with their landlord and help tenants better influence decisions about their homes.
- Opening date:
- Closing date: (Midday)
Contents
Summary
There is up to £1 million available to support projects which improve social housing tenants’ engagement with their landlord, and which give tenants more of a say about decisions affecting their homes. The aim of the fund is to test and learn from these projects, providing insights into best practice which can then be disseminated across the sector. The fund will also support the development of new approaches for empowering tenants who are currently underrepresented in engagement and scrutiny activities to participate, ensuring their views and needs are heard and acted upon.
Projects must be ‘innovative’, meaning they introduce new or significantly improved approaches, technologies or partnerships and challenge conventional practices in social housing. Projects must also have been co-produced with tenants, and have the potential to be replicated or rolled out on a wider scale.
The fund cannot be used to fund activities or projects that applicants were already delivering or planning to deliver without the additional funding. However, it can be used to expand or build upon existing projects.
The maximum amount of funding per project will be £100,000. There is no minimum amount of funding bidders can apply for, but the indicative amount of funding we will award per project will be between £60,000 and £100,000.
Eligibility
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 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
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.
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.
Objectives
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:
o Give tenants a range of meaningful opportunities to influence and scrutinize; social landlords’ strategies, policies and services;
o Ensure that tenants’ feedback is listened to and acted upon; and
o 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.
Dates
Important dates
Applications open: 27 October 2025
Deadline for applications: 9 January 2026
Funding awarded: February 2026
How to apply
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.