“Any new money is of course welcome, but money alone does not solve this problem.” – Gary Haynes, Managing Director, Voicescape
Yesterday, on 28 October 2026, the Chancellor delivered the Autumn Budget. It added £1.5 billion to the Social and Affordable Homes Programme, prioritised for Social Rent and council homes, and introduced a new VAT relief on land sold to social housing providers. It also confirmed a further £432 million for rough sleeping and a £4.7 billion Your First Home scheme for first-time buyers.
The government frames its long-term plan for social housing as a decade of renewal. At its centre is the Social and Affordable Homes Programme, which this Budget takes to more than £40 billion over the ten years from 2026 to 2036. Landlords share that ambition, but what will it take to make it real?
We caught up with Gary Haynes, Managing Director of Voicescape, and Simon Reay, Co-founder and Managing Director of Rubixx, both now part of Elevare. Their answer is a decade of innovation to match. Here’s what they make of the Budget, and what it means for social landlords and their residents.
“We all want to see the provision of higher-quality homes,” says Voicescape’s Gary. “And we want to see safer homes being provided to the most vulnerable people in the country.”
The challenge is meeting higher standards without hard trade-offs. As Gary describes it, this takes a “positive triangle” of good regulation, committed landlords and agile UK technology providers. Each achieves most when all three pull in the same direction.
That balance is getting harder to strike, because costs are outpacing income. Rent increases are set by formula, at CPI+1% under the current settlement, while the cost of running homes keeps climbing. Social landlords spent £9.5 billion on repairs and maintenance in the year to March 2026, up 5% on the previous year, according to the Regulator of Social Housing. Its latest forecast shows landlords planning record investment in repairs over the next five years.
Many landlords are drawing on reserves or cutting back. Simon has seen community work such as affordable warmth programmes and welfare advice scaled down as housing providers focus on core services.
The Budget’s housing measures focus on building new homes. Land sold to registered social housing providers will be VAT-free, and councils keep cheaper Public Works Loan Board borrowing for another year, at 40 basis points below normal rates.
“Zero-rating VAT on bare land for social housing is exactly the kind of practical reform the housing sector has been calling for,” says Simon. “The ‘golden brick’ rules have long forced housing associations into convoluted contract structures just to avoid hefty, unrecoverable VAT bills when buying land. Removing that hurdle would cut cost and complexity and let providers focus on what matters, which is getting affordable homes built.”
Demand keeps growing too, with more than 1.3 million households on local authority waiting lists in England. Temporary accommodation is under strain: 135,580 households, including 177,530 children, were living in it at the end of March 2026, up 3.6% on a year earlier.
The extra £1.5 billion is expected to deliver around 10,000 homes. It will be allocated from 2027–28 and rise over four years, giving councils time to build capacity. The further £432 million for rough sleeping brings total investment to £874 million by the end of this Parliament. Even so, the Office for Budget Responsibility now expects 190,000 fewer new homes over its forecast period than it did in March.
“Where will the homes be built, by which builders, who already can’t find enough good tradespeople, on what land, to what specification, with what local facilities and infrastructure?” asks Gary. “Announcing funding is the start of some momentum towards a solution, but not a solution in itself.”
On temporary accommodation, he adds: “The pressures aren’t only related to homelessness. There are so many contributing factors, such as cost-of-living pressures and complex family breakdowns. Until there is sufficient housing stock to house everyone, focusing on one thing or another will not solve the underlying problems.”
And compliance is now a year-round job. Phase 2 of Awaab’s Law comes into force on 30 November, extending landlords’ duties beyond damp and mould to hazards including excess cold and heat, falls, fire and electrical safety. Such risks can arise at any point in a tenancy, so landlords need to identify them early and stay in regular contact with residents.
Gary’s advice to landlords ahead of 30 November is to “understand their obligations and proactively engage with their tenants, rather than spend more time and money reactively dealing with cases and complaints”.
Meeting those duties means bringing information together. “Now it’s got to link up pre- and post-inspections, repairs and complaints,” says Simon. “We’re working hard on improving access to tenant tools so they can record, update and report issues.”
When Simon began his career, he was the only IT person at a 4,500-home housing association. An organisation that size now needs whole teams. “The housing sector has consistently been asked to do more, better, for more people, with less,” he says. “The only way that this adds up is with smarter and more effective ways of working and encourage innovation.”
Smarter starts with data. Landlords can only catch hazards early and support vulnerable residents with a complete view of each household. The same goes across organisations: when systems used by landlords, councils and other bodies don’t talk to each other, residents at risk are harder to spot.
The cost of disconnected data is clearest in supported exempt accommodation, where some providers claim enhanced housing benefit without delivering the support residents are owed. The sums involved are significant. In Birmingham alone, the DWP paid out £410 million for supported housing in the last financial year.
Plans to license the sector are welcome, and they’ll work best when councils, landlords, the DWP and support providers can see the same picture: who lives where, what’s being claimed and what is actually delivered. It’s Gary’s triangle again. Good regulation, backed by the right technology, cuts waste and protects the people the system is there to serve.
Gary sees the same logic in resident engagement. “The more proactive you are, the more time and money you’ll save,” he says. “The landlord gets a better result, and the tenant gets a better experience.”
None of this happens without the businesses building the tools. Those innovators need simple, predictable R&D support and an environment where people want to start and grow businesses with manageable employment costs.
“The proposed founders’ relief is a welcome signal. People who start and grow businesses need to know the rewards are worth the risk.” says Simon. “There’s plenty of space for innovation that helps landlords serve their residents better, and that’s good for tenants, landlords and the public purse.”
“Businesses and investors need certainty and long-term consistency and commitment,” says Gary. “Constantly changing the rules, or even just threatening to change the rules, makes investment at best pause, if not go elsewhere.”
Competition matters too. “The sector has plenty of challenges to overcome. I’d love to see new businesses alongside Rubixx and Voicescape innovating new solutions,” says Simon. Gary puts the goal simply: “Make it easier for UK small businesses to help UK organisations better serve UK people.”
Ultimately, all of this comes back to residents, and the benefits system is hard for them to navigate. Universal Credit claims, the housing element, direct payments to landlords and changes in circumstances can all affect whether rent gets paid, and many residents need help to get them right. Technology is already helping landlords provide that support, from assisting with benefit applications to engaging early when someone starts to fall into arrears.
“We don’t provide software to people on a waiting list for a home, or stuck in temporary accommodation,” says Gary. “But the people who work for Voicescape do what we do because we want to make a difference to people like that.”
That purpose is shared across Voicescape, Rubixx and Elevare. Social landlords do more than build homes. They sustain tenancies, protect residents’ wellbeing and keep people safe.
A decade of renewal needs a decade of innovation. Getting both right is how landlords will make a lasting difference to residents’ lives.
Voicescape works with more than 135 housing associations and local authorities covering around four million homes. Its platform combines AI, behavioural science and automation to help landlords engage residents, identify vulnerable households and improve rent collection.
Rubixx provides a cloud-native platform that covers housing management, finance, support planning and CRM for 40 organisations and around 100,000 properties.
Elevare partners with ambitious software and tech-enabled services businesses ready for their next chapter.
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If you run a software company and are considering your next chapter, we’d love to hear from you.
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