27 suppliers have been appointed by PfH Scotland to the fifth generation of its Social Housing Emerging Disruptors (SHED) framework – the largest cohort since the framework was established in 2022.
The value of contracts awarded under SHED quadrupled in 2025. With the framework increasingly used by Scottish councils and housing associations to procure emerging technologies from fledgling innovators, SHED 5 is worth £500 million over three years, up from £100 million for the previous iteration.
PfH Scotland has worked with social housing membership community the Disruptive Innovators Network (DIN) to identify early stage tech firms whose services solve challenges facing the sector but can’t be sourced easily through traditional public procurement routes.
By their nature, these products are described as new or highly specialised, which means social housing procurement teams often lack the technical reference points needed to specify them or compare competing offers.
Small suppliers also have difficulty breaking into the social housing market due to complex bid documentation, high financial thresholds, and other tender requirements designed for established contractors.
SHED aims to address these issues by offering a ‘simplified, SME-friendly’ bidding process and a compliant way of social landlords testing and adopting new solutions. Through a quick desk-based selection process, they identify the supplier that best meets their requirements, get pricing information, and swiftly complete the contracting process.
This year’s suppliers offer a broad mix of emerging solutions, including modular housing panels made from recycled glass, a self-testing fire door that monitors its own compliance, a platform predicting home hazards and health risks, a smart heat scheduler allowing residents to better control their heating costs, a long term anti-mould coating system, and a solution to help social landlords engage and communicate with residents.
Neil Butters, operations director at PfH Scotland, said, “SHED was created to address a practical problem: housing providers in Scotland needed access to emerging tech solutions, and smaller suppliers needed a route into a highly regulated market. Five generations on, the data shows that this model works. We are seeing more Scottish social landlords than ever using SHED to procure innovation, and more SMEs able to scale fresh solutions to persistent challenges such as damp and mould, building safety, digital switchover, decarbonisation, tenant wellbeing, asset management and housing supply.”
Annemarie Roberts, associate director and property lead at the Disruptive Innovators Network, added, “The social housing environment in Scotland is more challenging than ever before, with teams dealing with many here and now issues, as well as trying to be ready for future challenges. Finding innovative, future-focused solutions that can be easily procured is exactly where the SHED framework can help.”
For more information about the SHED 5 framework visit: https://pfhscotland.co.uk/shed-frameworks/
