HomeLINK: building healthier, better social housing in Stirling
At a glance
The problem
How can tech deliver better services, save money and improve the lives of everyone in Stirling?
The solution
HomeLINK empowers residents to take control of the health of their homes, giving them tools and advice to understand their home environment and make changes to improve it.
Challenge Sponsors
Stirling Council
Company website
Here’s the uncomfortable truth: You can’t fix what you don’t know exists
By 2018, Stirling Council faced mounting repair needs across its public housing and growing scrutiny from residents. But the deeper problem wasn’t wear and tear — it was a lack of timely, actionable insight.
Without proactive monitoring, small issues escalated into major costs.
The question wasn’t how to repair buildings. It was how to prevent failure in the first place. And now there is a better way…
HomeLINK, a housing hero
Stirling Council owns and manages a vast portfolio of public buildings and capital assets. The scale alone — combined with varying management processes and responsibilities — made it increasingly difficult for the local authority to stay ahead of rising maintenance demands and costs.
So the Council turned to CivTech.
A Challenge was launched — and, like a modern-day version of “build it and they will come” Scotland’s innovation ecosystem got to work.
Responding to a CivTech 3 Challenge, HomeLINK developed a cutting-edge Internet of Things (IoT) solution featuring industry‑leading security, environmental sensors, and cellular connectivity. Deployed across thousands of properties, the system collects real‑time data and transforms it into clear, prioritised insights that landlords can act on.
The result? A step change in how Stirling manages its homes — enabling proactive repairs, improved tenant engagement, and smarter long‑term planning.
The programme went on to become the largest social housing IoT rollout in the UK, setting a benchmark for digital transformation in the public sector.
Lessons learnt
Pilots can make a big difference: sometimes there’s reticence about innovation, about ‘the new’. But finding a small group prepared to explore the opportunity, and garnering genuine, positive feedback can do so much to popularise a new innovation. And in this regard -
Safety and security always count: perhaps there’s nothing more important than the safety and security of the place we call home. Building in strong security from day one — and demonstrating it — can be key to success.
When digital inclusion matters, it really matters: not all residents will be hugely confident in new technology, so great emphasis was placed on ensuring it was easy to use.
“Using the HomeLINK resident App was eye opening. I’d never really considered the air quality in my home before, but the app really highlighted the benefits of a healthy home. I do spend most of my time indoors and having that extra prompt to let some fresh air in has been really handy and helped with my productivity”.
Grace Lee
Resident
“Over the past few years, we have experienced difficulty accessing some properties to test our smoke alarms... The SmartLINK Gateway would allow us to fully monitor remotely each detector ensuring that as a landlord we could provide assurance that the detectors are always in working order.”
Gareth Roberts
Asset Compliance Manager, Adra Housing Association
About the company
HomeLINK was founded in 2018 by four cofounders, Luke Lovebridge, Adam Taylor-Drake, Chris Jone and Silvu Nistor entrepreneur Luke Loveridge to address gaps in how organisations understand, plan and manage complex systems and infrastructure. Established as an independent SME, the company set out to combine technical insight with practical delivery, supporting clients across the built environment, energy and public sectors. In its early years, HomeLINK focused on developing data driven tools and advisory services that improved decision making and operational resilience. Through steady growth and a reputation for collaborative working, the company built long term partnerships and expanded its capabilities, laying the foundations for its later evolution and eventual successful trade sale to Aico, a European market leader in home life safety.
Adam Taylor-Drake
Cofounder
Chris Jones
Cofounder
Benefits
Prevents costly failures and reduces maintenance spend: by identifying issues early through real‑time monitoring of temperature, humidity, carbon dioxide, mould risk and safety devices pre-emptive, planned interventions maintenance became the norm.
Better building safety and compliance, and smarter long‑term asset planning: continuous monitoring makes buildings safer, and analysing data across thousands of homes, trends, risk areas and future investment needs are revealed.
Improved tenant wellbeing with clear, actionable insights that support healthier indoor environments. Better environments create better long-term outcomes in everything – not just wellbeing and health, but in other areas including educational attainment.
Enhances customer engagement with accessible dashboards and resident apps that help build trust and strengthen communication between the Council and tenants.
