Locarla | The UK's Social Housing Data Platform

Social Housing RMI Business Intelligence & other stuff

Namaste.

‘AI’ is amazing! We built a tender, award, property mapping, EPC, and Social Housing intelligence platform in 25 minutes, using only cotton buds and sticky-back plastic. It doesn’t work and all the data is nonsense but that is the power of AI – you can say anything, add a pie chart and a graph, and people will believe you’ve split the atom.

We didn’t actually build it, but we have included a document this month to help people to understand prompting (asking questions) LLMs (ChatGPT et al).

We have been working on our ‘RAG’ for 2 years now. Think of it as a Chatbot on Locarla, where instead of using filters, searches and sorting to find the data, you ask a question, and it will give you an accurate answer.

At the beginning of this journey, I honestly thought that we would be able to bin Locarla.com and end up with a one‐page search box on Locarla.ai – not a chance. The main site has become more important as we need access to the raw data to delve deeper into the responses we’re getting. An updated version of the RAG will go live next week and is currently available to our ‘Retrofit & Decarbonisation’ clients. Any questions, please ask Amy, who will politely tell you to figure it out for yourselves.

‘Blue links‘ for all and ‘green links‘ are behind login so dependent on your licence.

Welcome, welcome, one and all.

R&M Contract Award Analysis

Download the full report.

It’s all News to me!

AI generated content

Walsall Housing Group (WHG) and Aspire Housing are in early discussions on a potential merger that would create a new housing association managing around 32,000 homes across the Midlands. Source: Walsall Housing Group (WHG). The merger between Bromford Flagship and LiveWest has now completed, forming Bromford Flagship LiveWest BFL and unlocking additional capacity for investment and services. Source: Bromford Flagship LiveWest Ltd

SettleParadigm Housing Group has completed the acquisition of 3,500 homes in South Buckinghamshire from London & Quadrant Housing Trust, marking the largest stock transfer between housing associations to date. Source: SettleParadigm Housing Group. BPHA has exchanged contracts to acquire more than 1,200 homes in Luton and Central Bedfordshire from Clarion Housing Association. Source: BPHA. B3Living has acquired 337 homes from Notting Hill Genesis to expand its housing portfolio. Source: B3Living

Uttlesford Council is bringing its housing repairs and maintenance services in-house. Source: Dunmow Broadcast. Somerset Council is considering consolidating management of 10,000 homes under Homes in Somerset, pending a decision in March 2026. Source: Somerset Council

The Regulator of Social Housing has published ten regulatory judgements, including C1 for Bournemouth, Christchurch & Poole Council, C1/G1/V2 for Cheshire Peaks & Plains Housing Trust, C2 ratings for Wolverhampton City Council and St. Albans City Council, and a governance downgrade to G2 for Ocean Housing Group. Source: GOV.UK

Sheffield City Council has approved more than £552m to improve council homes over five years. Source: The Star. Wolverhampton City Council plans a £107m programme to deliver around 500 new council homes. Source: TheBusinessDesk.com. Castle Point Council is proposing investment exceeding £80m within a balanced four-year budget. Source: Echo. £68m of improvements are planned for council housing across Bournemouth and Poole by Bournemouth, Christchurch & Poole Council. Source: Daily Echo. Rochdale Boroughwide Housing has secured £55m for regeneration and improvement works. Source: Manchester Evening News

The UK Government has launched a £15bn Warm Homes Plan to fund solar, batteries, heat pumps and insulation to cut household energy bills. Source: GOV.UK. The Mayor of London has confirmed a £1.5bn boost to accelerate affordable and social housing delivery across the capital. Source: London Gov.UK

Cardo Group has acquired Trident Maintenance Services Ltd, expanding its building maintenance, refurbishment and improvement capacity across England and Scotland and strengthening delivery capability in housing repair and asset management services. Source: Cardo Group

Housing supply indicators show 29,620 dwellings started on site in England between July and September 2025 (seasonally adjusted), unchanged in the previous quarter and 3% higher year-on-year. Source: GOV.UK

UK housing activity weakened, with project starts down 3% year-on-year, main contract awards down 19%, and detailed planning approvals down 38% compared with 2024. Source: Construction News. London housebuilding has fallen 84% since 2015 despite high demand. Source: BBC. Confidence persists across the housebuilding supply chain despite affordability and regulatory pressures. Source: Specification Online. Tender price inflation reached 2.5% annually. Source: BCIS. Meanwhile, Tier One contractors are adopting AI to manage competition and cost pressures. Source: Construction Wave

Between October and December 2025, 357,000 domestic EPCs were lodged in England and Wales, a 1% decrease compared with the same period in 2024. Source: GOV.UK. By the end of November 2025, around 113,900 measures had been installed in 54,900 households under the SHDF Waves 1, 2.1, and 2.2. Source: GOV.UK. Since the start of the GBIS, 120,500 measures have been installed in 89,800 households. Source: GOV.UK, while the ECO delivered around 4.4m energy efficiency measures across 2.6m homes. Source: GOV.UK. Overcrowding reached 3% of households in 2024-25 while under-occupation stood at 40%, with overcrowding rising in both social and private rented sectors. Source: GOV.UK. Modern energy‐efficient new‐build homes can save households around £420 annually and significantly reduce carbon emissions compared to older properties. Source: Home Builders Federation. The Boiler Upgrade Scheme had received 110,758 voucher applications by December 2025, with 98% for ASHP installations. Source: GOV.UK. At the end of December 2025, 4,126 residential buildings 11 metres and over were identified with unsafe cladding, a decrease of 1,487 from November. Source: GOV.UK. Meanwhile, Gateway 3 approval delays continue to leave thousands of completed flats unoccupied. Source: Construction Enquirer

A new Decent Homes Standard model would significantly expand non-decent classifications, raising failure rates from 10% to 45% in the social rented sector and 21% to 48% in the private rented sector. Source: GOV.UK. Early data on Awaab’s Law shows strong compliance by landlords but increasing operational pressure. Source: Housing Executive

AI generated content

When “Show Me Everything” Doesn’t Mean “List Everything”

We’re 7 months into training a RAG/LLM on 580 million pieces of social housing data.
The AI bit? That was the ‘easy’ part. Everyone will have a RAG soon.
The hard part is teaching it to understand housing.

When someone asks, “Who owns the most energy‐inefficient homes in areas of highest deprivation?”:

• Deprivation = low living standards (we score 0-10, opposite direction)
• D‐G rated = poor performing
• One building ≠ one property
• “Show me everything” ≠ 85,000 rows of addresses

[The symbol ≠ means “not equal to” and is used in mathematics and logic to indicate that two values, expressions, or quantities are not the same – in case you didn’t know.]

We’ve written dozens of rules like this. Each one eliminates a class of failures.
This is a brain‐dump of what I know about prompting – general tips, super‐charging your prompts and, our approach to prompt engineering building a housing‐specific RAG.

It’s aimed at the Social Housing sector, but the methodology works for any specialised dataset.

Download the document.

Show me the money!

A PDF guide to contract management on Locarla.

AI generated content

The procurement engine is running hot ‐ and February’s pipeline is firmly centred on compliance, responsive maintenance, voids and major investment frameworks across the UK.

Setting a national compliance benchmark, Hyde Group has issued PIN ‐ Protect Framework (Compliance Services) valued at £1.5bn across UK Wide for 48 months, covering electrical testing and remedials, gas safety, water hygiene, lifts (including LOLER), asbestos, fire detection, security systems and playground inspections.

Driving building safety at scale, Prosper Procurement Ltd is establishing PIN ‐ Building Safety Framework worth £500m across UK Wide for 48 months, structured into six specialist lots spanning consultants, passive and active fire, R&M and principal contractor delivery.

Positioning a significant regional capital programme, Orbit Group Ltd has issued PIN ‐ Planned Improvement Works valued at £416.7m for 60 months, signalling early engagement ahead of a long‐term planned investment strategy across its housing portfolio.

Reinforcing national repairs delivery at scale, Fusion21 Ltd is progressing a PIN ‐ Responsive Repairs & Void Property Framework 2026–2030 valued at £330m across UK Wide for 48 months, covering responsive repairs, void refurbishments and disrepair works.

Shaping London’s next-generation delivery partnership, Waltham Forest London Borough is engaging the market for PIN ‐ Planned Works and Repairs Technical Partner 2026 valued at £312m across Greater London for 60 months, seeking a specialist delivery partner to support responsive repairs, planned works.

Strengthening borough‐wide electrical compliance, Southwark Council is tendering Electrical Installations Repairs & Maintenance (EIRM) term contracts worth £122.6m across Greater London for 60 months, covering EICRs, fire detection, communal refurbishments, solar PV, UPS and lightning protection.

Alongside this, Greenwich London Borough is procuring Electrical Testing & Associated Works valued at £38.5m across Greater London for 60 months, appointing two geographically split providers to deliver EICRs, remedials, MVHR servicing, solar PV maintenance and emergency call‐outs.

Rolling out a UK‐wide product refresh, LHC Procurement Group has issued three aligned UK‐wide PIN ‐ Windows & Doors across England (£120m), Wales (£120m) and Scotland (£60m), each running for 48 months. The frameworks retain PVC‐U, timber and aluminium‐clad timber lots.

Delivering targeted roofing and access solutions, Abri is establishing Framework for Roofing Services and/or Scaffolding Works 2026–2030 valued at £33.45m across Greater London, South East and South West for 24 months, split across planned, responsive and scaffolding lots aligned to operational regions.

Accelerating planned internal renewals, Freebridge Community Housing Ltd. is tendering Kitchens & Bathrooms Replacement Works worth £25m across East Anglia for 60 months, appointing two suppliers to deliver high‐volume kitchen and bathroom programmes to tenanted homes.

Expanding regional responsive capacity, Great Places Housing Group is tendering Repairs and Maintenance Services and Works valued at £20.6m across its housing portfolio for 60 months, covering reactive repairs, void works, disrepair and refurbishment.

Advancing decarbonisation pathways, ateb Group Ltd. is launching Retrofit Framework worth £20m across Wales for 24 months, spanning seven lots covering planned and retrofit electrical and mechanical works, fabric upgrades, whole‐house delivery and M&E consultancy in support of net zero targets.

Preparing for intensified void performance delivery, Northamptonshire Partnership Homes is warming the market for PIN ‐ Major Void Refurbishment Works valued at £18m across the East Midlands for 24 months, targeting rapid turnaround internal and external refurbishment.

Complementing this in the South West, Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole Council (BCP) is procuring Kitchen & Bathroom Renewals valued at £12.5m for 48 months across its council housing stock.

Rounding out a comprehensive estate‐wide delivery route, Wythenshawe Community Housing Group (WCHG) is establishing Building Works Open Framework valued at £12m in the North West for 72 months, structured across five lots covering general build, voids, specialist works, planned investment and building safety activity, including fire doors, compartmentation and life safety systems.

Reinforcing regional heating compliance, Stonewater Ltd is tendering Gas and Renewable Repairs and Maintenance ‐ 00422 ‐ AST worth £10m across the South West for 36 months, delivering 24/7 gas safety, LGSR compliance and renewable heating maintenance across its portfolio.

AI generated content

The Other League Tables

Along with our main monthly league tables, ❲see below❳, we also produce tables based on the following trades: Retrofit, Asbestos Survey, Fire Risk Assessment, Water/Legionella & Stock Condition Survey. ❲RMI Insight & Decarbonisation clients, click here for the PDF❳

Top of the league in each table are ….

Retrofit:

Wates Group

Asbestos Survey:

Tersus Consultancy

Fire Risk Assessment:

IFI Group

Stock Condition Surveys:

Pennington Choices

Water / Legionella:

Sureserve Compliance Water

January League Tables

Built Environment Contracts

The trades we cover; Responsive Repair, Planned Works (Kitchen/Bathrooms & Doors/Windows), Gas Servicing/Central Heating, Voids, Fire Safety & Roofing.