MONITORING & METERING
From left: Tunde Ajibola (GMCA), Niamh Allen (SST), Soraya Talor (Southway Housing Trust), Tayyib Jaffar-Ali (SST) and John Duncan (GMCA)
Community focus Resident engagement was central to installation success. SST achieved a 100% sign-up rate across all 30 households, with no subsequent withdrawals. In the Onward-managed area of the project, where Bengali is a commonly-spoken language, SST produced bilingual Bengali and English materials – a decision that drew positive feedback from residents. The company’s hands-on approach to onboarding, informed consent and ongoing communication has been recognised by GMCA, which formally noted the team’s delivery speed and quality in project governance meetings. Wayne McDonald, head of capital
Connected platform targets damp and fuel poverty
A smart home monitoring platform has been deployed in 30 Greater Manchester social homes, giving housing providers real-time insight into conditions, energy use and retrofit performance through a 5G innovation programme.
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ancashire-based technology company Sustainable Smart Technologies (SST) has completed the installation of
its smart home monitoring platform in 30 social housing properties across Greater Manchester, working with Onward Homes and Southway Housing Trust. It is part of the Greater Manchester Combined Authority’s (GMCA) 5G Innovation Region programme, which is testing how digital tools can improve housing conditions, affordability and wellbeing at scale. SST was selected for the project
after a competitive tender process, going on to deploy sensors across 20 homes managed by Onward and 10 homes managed by Southway Housing. Installations were completed by the end of January 2026 – just four months after the contract was awarded. The company’s platform monitors
temperature and humidity across four rooms in each property, providing housing officers with real-time insight into conditions to help prevent damp, condensation and mould growth. The system also integrates smart meter data, enabling the identification of residents who may be on unsuitable energy tariffs.
Data-driven insights Niamh Allen, MD at SST, says: “We are proud to have delivered this installation programme to a high standard at pace, using pioneering technology to assure residents that their homes are fit for the future. My team and I make sure to meet as many residents as possible, to learn
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about their experiences and to address their queries firsthand. “That’s because as a business we
are led by a sense of purpose and social value – we want to ensure that bills are more affordable, that energy is sustainable and that people are content with the places in which they live. That’s what our monitoring platform enables us to do.” SST is the technology arm of Sustainable Investments, which also owns retrofit specialist Sustainable Building Services (SBS). A number of the Onward properties in the trial are now due to be retrofitted with energy efficiency upgrades by SBS, meaning SST will be able to compare pre- and post-retrofit performance data.
Retrofit validation This expansive monitoring capability enables housing providers and funders to compare ‘before’ with ‘after’, offering
independent verification that retrofit investments are delivering the intended outcomes – and early identification of any properties where further investigation may be needed. At Southway, the first phase of the
GMCA programme focused on the connectivity of Daikin air source heat pumps in selected properties. SST became involved in phase two and went a step further by integrating data from the connected heat pumps into the platform. This ‘stacking’ of use cases –
combining environmental monitoring with renewable heating performance data in a single dashboard – demonstrates the benefits of SST’s platform, which has open, hardware- agnostic architecture, with an ability to bring together data from multiple sources without requiring housing providers to replace existing technology.
Sustainable Smart Technologies has completed the installation of its smart home monitoring platform in social housing properties across Greater Manchester, working with Onward Homes and Southway Housing Trust
investment at Onward, said: “This project is evidence of the great work that can be done in housing when partners align their goals. SST worked closely with our on-site teams and engaged sensitively with our customers throughout. The bilingual materials made a real difference in this community, and SST’s hands-on approach meant we could focus on supporting our customers through the wider retrofit works.” While some smart home monitoring
solutions provide large amounts of raw data, SST’s platform is designed to present housing officers with relevant, actionable insight. The system makes it easy to see which properties may need attention and reduces the burden on stretched housing management teams. The platform’s open data architecture means it can integrate sensors, solar panels, batteries, inverters and other devices already deployed across a housing provider’s estate and deliver this information in a comprehensible format.
Scaling innovation As greater focus turns to technology in order to make housing as affordable and sustainable as possible, GMCA is now developing a procurement framework to make it easier for social housing providers across Greater Manchester to access proven smart monitoring services, without each organisation having to start from scratch. John Duncan, Connected Places
lead at GMCA, says: “We want to understand how advanced connectivity can improve everyday life for people across Greater Manchester and social housing is a really important place for us to explore that. “Now that the installation phase of
this work is complete, we’re keen to see what the data tells us and how housing providers use that insight in practice. We’ll use that learning to share clear, evidence-based lessons with the wider
housing sector.” ■
www.sustainablesmarttech.com
EIBI | JULY / AUGUST 2026
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