Housing providers face three pressures at once. Net zero standards are coming, but budgets are not yet in place. New damp and mould rules put statutory timescales on every report. And the residents most affected by cold, damp homes are often those least able to afford higher bills.
HeatLens helps housing teams assess homes from the records they already hold, find the homes and rooms most at risk, compare retrofit routes before committing capital, and oversee delivery through to performance after installation. Portfolio tools for whole-stock planning are being developed with housing providers.
Features for landlords and housing associations
The video below walks through the features most relevant to landlords and housing associations. They follow the retrofit cycle: assess, plan, deliver and monitor, with portfolio tools on our roadmap.
Assess
- Assess from the records you hold. Upload EPCs, floor plans or photos. AI extracts the fabric and floor areas, confidence-scored and checked by your team, so each home is assessed on one consistent basis.
- Find the cold rooms. Room-by-room heat loss shows which rooms struggle to stay warm, and which radiators cannot keep up at the lower temperatures heat pumps use. Rooms that run cold are more prone to condensation.
- Know which homes need a survey. Every input is tagged as measured, from a plan, from a table or estimated, and every result carries an evidence level. Survey budgets can go to the homes where better evidence would change the decision.
Plan
- Compare retrofit routes. Baseline, fabric upgrades and full retrofit are compared on heat loss, heat pump size and running cost, with EPC recommendations modelled one by one, before capital is committed.
- Lower bills for residents. Running costs are compared across tariffs and against the current heating system, which matters most in homes at risk of fuel poverty.
- Reports for staff, contractors and residents. A technical design for staff and for MCS paperwork, a pack for contractors and a plain-English report for residents, all from one assessment.
Deliver and monitor
- Oversee delivery. Each job moves through nine stages from lead to aftercare, with DNO, BUS and MCS packs, installation readiness and handover evidence recorded against the home.
- Check performance after installation (beta). Measured energy use can be compared with the design, adjusted for the weather, with findings and tuning advice. Underperforming systems can be flagged for a call-out.
Portfolio tools (on our roadmap)
- Portfolio view and risk ranking. Every home on one consistent basis, ranked by cold-home and condensation risk, so action can start before residents have to report a problem.
- Capital planning and Awaab's Law support. Retrofit measures phased across a multi-year plan and ranked by impact per pound, with funding-ready evidence, and a prioritised list to help teams act within statutory damp and mould timescales.
The challenge for housing providers
The money is not yet in place. Fewer than one in three of Scotland's registered social landlords have made any provision for net zero in their financial projections. The Scottish Housing Regulator estimates that meeting the proposed Social Housing Net Zero Standard would cost around £28,000 per flat and up to £42,000 per house, a sector bill of £4.6 billion to £9.3 billion (Inside Housing, November 2025).
Damp and mould now come with a clock. From 6 October 2026, social and private landlords in Scotland must investigate reports of substantial damp or mould within 10 working days, give tenants a written summary within 3 working days of the investigation, and start any repair within 5 working days of it (Investigation and Commencement of Repair (Scotland) Regulations 2026). In England, Awaab's Law has covered damp, mould and emergency hazards in social housing since October 2025, and from 30 November 2026 it also covers excess cold and excess heat (GOV.UK). The Scottish Housing Regulator's thematic review of damp and mould (September 2026) found that condensation caused 59% of the 40,140 damp and mould cases social landlords resolved in 2025 to 2026, and just over half of the cases that had to be reopened. That makes heat, fabric and ventilation central to prevention.
Warm homes and health
Cold, damp homes affect health, and the effects of damp and mould are strongest in infants and children. Poor housing is estimated to cost NHS Scotland around £530 million a year (University of Glasgow for Public Health Scotland and the Scottish Futures Trust).
HeatLens is being developed with clinical input from an NHS community nurse manager specialising in children's respiratory care, so that future tools reflect the needs of residents with respiratory conditions, older residents and people with disabilities.
Building portfolio tools with housing providers
HeatLens assesses individual homes today. The next step is to bring those assessments together across a stock: a consistent portfolio view, risk ranking, capital planning and support for damp and mould timescales. Targeted insight for the highest-risk homes, including opt-in household needs and low-cost sensors, is also being explored.
These tools are being designed with housing providers. Partners help decide what is built first and how it fits existing asset management and repairs processes.
Access
Features marked beta are working but still being refined, and features on our roadmap are in development.
Work with HeatLens
Help shape HeatLens for housing providers
Join the partner programme, or start with a single home in the free demo.