Housing Technology Awards 2024

The Housing Technology Awards 2024 took place at the Housing Technology Conference in March 2024. We are thrilled to announce the winners of the inaugural Housing Technology Awards (2024) as well as the commended entries. The standard of entries was incredibly high; all of the housing providers and local authorities mentioned below submitted excellent examples and case studies of their IT-related projects and teams spanning the awards’ categories. The finalists’ entries were assessed and scored by our external panel of judges from UK housing providers. Please see our interviews with the 2024 gold winners and the full winner list below.

Interviews with our winners

Customer Service Award Winner: Raven Housing Trust

Raven Housing has worked with TechLabs London to deliver a pioneering digital transformation programme which has revolutionised the way it does business, improving customer experience, operational efficiency and cost effectiveness while reducing risk. It has developed simpler-to-use, more integrated systems by overhauling Raven’s IT infrastructure and moving to cloud-based solutions on the Dynamics platform.

Cyber Security Award Winner: West Kent Housing

In 2022, West Kent Housing was in the process of prioritising cyber security through the creation of a new infrastructure and security team when there were a series of cyber-attacks on housing associations nationwide alongside an internal penetration test, involving social engineering, highlighting several vulnerabilities. This led us to accelerate the raising of staff awareness through ‘security as a culture’ and investing in cyber-security systems and processes during 2023.

Innovation Award Winner: Platform Housing

Housing associations like Platform are in a fantastic position to make real use of the amount of data they hold on customers. With real innovative thinking and a positive, adoptive culture, there’s a real possibility of solving problems in a targeted and resource-conscious manner. Following the Peabody report, Platform successfully used machine learning to identify customers who were otherwise at risk of becoming ‘silent’ and performed hundreds of tenancy health-checks, stepping in and helping where, in some instances, serious self neglect and isolation could have resulted in life-threatening health issues.

IT Team of the Year Award Winner: L&Q

In late 2022, L&Q introduced a new technology operating model, which included the establishment of an internal application management, development and project management function called BizApps. Over the past year, BizApps has recruited over 100 people for new roles and implemented a fresh approach to IT project management. Additionally, a large-scale, multi-million-pound transformation programme was initiated to replace L&Q’s housing and finance management systems, which integrated with the majority of the application landscape.

Data Management Award Winner: L&Q

L&Q’s data vision is to achieve a seamless flow of trusted data across its entire data ecosystem. We aim to deliver this vision through a transformational programme centred on Semarchy’s master data management (MDM) services and an enterprise data platform (EDP). The EDP is an environment for building and running applications, systems and processes. A project was initiated in late 2022 which aimed to deliver on this vision and it went live in Autumn 2023, immediately providing a significant step-change in L&Q’s data capabilities.

Full winner list

Customer/Tenant Services finalists

Cyber-Security finalists

West Kent Housing: Cyber-security as an organisational culture; Gold Winner
Kingdom Housing: Cyber-security using AI, automation and IT standards; Silver Winner
Southern Housing: Cyber-assurance during a high-speed merger; Bronze Winner
Adra (Tai) Cyf: Making cyber-security mainstream; Finalist
Link Group: A problem-solving approach to cyber-awareness; Finalist
Commended: Freebridge Community Housing, Newark & Sherwood District Council and Raven Housing Trust.

Digital Transformation finalists

Magenta Living: Damp and mould case management; Gold Winner
Platform Housing: The future shape of finance; Silver Winner
Places for People: Delivering an effortless customer experience; Bronze Winner
Notting Hill Genesis: A proof-of-concept for uniting people and data; Finalist
Southwark Council: Digital improvements to KPIs for rent collection; Finalist
Commended: Beyond Housing, L&Q, Monmouthshire Housing, Newark & Sherwood District Council, Newport City Homes, Southwark Council, Stockport Homes, Tai Tarian and Wrekin Housing.

Innovation finalists

Platform Housing: Asking big questions of AI; Gold Winner
Thirteen Group: Innovating debt recovery; Silver Winner
North Star Housing: Using AI for automated compliance; Bronze Winner
L&Q: BizApps’ innovative technology portfolio management; Finalist
Notting Hill Genesis: Migration to Microsoft omni-channels; Finalist
Commended: Home Group, Housing Solutions, Lincolnshire Housing Partnership, Places for People, Raven Housing Trust, Southwark Council, Sovereign Network Group, Stockport Homes and Warwick District Council.

IT Team of the Year finalists

L&Q: BizApps – Rebuilding IT’s relationship with the business; Gold Winner
Sovereign Network Group: Delivering excellence from SNG’s data & analytics team; Silver Winner
Southern Housing: Pure hard work – The engine of a merger; Bronze Winner
Home Group: Implementing integration middleware without risking service delivery; Finalist
Lincolnshire Housing Partnership: A customer-first approach to all aspects of IT; Finalist
Commended: Beyond Housing, Link Group and Newark & Sherwood District Council.

Data Management finalists

L&Q: BizApp's new master data management and enterprise data platform; Gold Winner
Notting Hill Genesis: Innovations in data governance; Silver Winner
Sovereign Network Group: An ambitious journey towards data observability. Bronze Winner