New AI app pilot to help thousands of Oxfordshire residents strengthen community connections
Clarion Housing Group, Sovereign Network Group (SNG) and Soha Housing have secured almost £120,000 through the Government's Social Housing Innovation Fund to pilot the Neya Local Connection app across homes in Oxfordshire, helping residents connect with neighbours, access local support and build stronger, more inclusive communities where residents feel a greater sense of belonging.
The 12-month pilot, Connected Neighbours: New Models for Tenant-Landlord Engagement, will see at least 2,400 residents across three communities in Oxfordshire benefit from access to the Neya app. The project aims to strengthen resident voice and influence, support more meaningful and continuous engagement, and ensure residents have greater opportunity to shape decisions affecting their homes and communities.
The Neya platform, which was one of the winners of Clarion’s prestigious William Sutton Prize in 2025, acts as an AI-powered local super-connector, creating local groups, introducing neighbours to one another, and encourages simple but meaningful interactions such as borrowing a ladder or finding a local walking group, sharing surplus food or connecting with nearby events and services. In doing so, it is designed to encourage informal, everyday interactions that can build confidence and trust while creating pathways into more formal engagement opportunities with landlords over time.
As part of the pilot, a cross-partner Resident Steering Group, drawing on residents from all three housing associations, will hold shared decision-making power throughout delivery to shape priorities, inform how the approach is adapted, and play an active role in evaluating what works. Particular focus will be given to ensuring that residents who are currently underrepresented in engagement activities are supported to take part, so that a wider range of voices, experiences and needs are heard and acted upon.
The project responds directly to two of the five challenges set out in Clarion’s Five New Giants of Opportunity report. Published in 2025, the report identified Connection and Trust, alongside Health, Sufficiency and Resilience as defining opportunities to build communities where residents feel empowered, supported and genuinely at home.
It called on housing associations to move beyond transactional, top-down engagement towards models that are two-way, continuous and grounded in everyday community life. By giving residents the tools to connect, self-organise and influence services, the pilot will enable landlords to gain real-time insight into community priorities, respond earlier and more collaboratively, and make engagement an ongoing shared process rather than a one-off consultation.
Kate Still, Chief Customer Officer at Clarion Housing Group, said:
"Our Five New Giants report identified connection and trust as defining opportunities for social housing and a chance to build communities where residents feel empowered, supported and genuinely at home.
“This pilot is a direct response to that challenge, using the power of innovation to create the conditions for neighbours to connect, relationships to form and communities to grow stronger.
“We look forward to working with our William Sutton Prize-winning partners Neighbourly Lab and Neya, and housing associations SNG and Soha, to turn the ambitions of that report into real, lasting differences for residents and to share what we learn across the sector."
Rob Chapman, Director at Neya Technologies, said:
“Neya makes it easy for everybody to access and contribute to all the good things their neighbourhood offers: active welcoming local groups neighbours looking out for one another, on-hand advice and recommendations. Neya’s live and growing in Oxford city already (find it on your appstore!) so it’ll be great to extend it county-wide. Therefore we’re delighted to be partnering with Clarion, Soha and SNG to explore how this step-up in local connectedness could point landlords and tenants to new ways to engage and collectively enrich their communities.“
Richie Rumbelow, Director of Customer Experience at Sovereign Network Group, said:
“We’re delighted to be partnering with Clarion, Soha Housing, Neighbourly Labs and Neya on this innovative programme. Working together allows us to test new ways of strengthening trust, amplifying residents’ voices and supporting communities to connect in ways that feel meaningful to them.
“This pilot links directly to our Better Together Strategy – creating connected communities where people feel heard, have influence over the issues that matter to them, and enjoy a great experience in the place they call home. We’re excited to learn alongside residents and partners and to share what works more widely across the sector.”
Emma Langstaff, Head of Resident Experience & Organisational Learning at Soha Housing, said:
“Our vision is to create vibrant, sustainable and resilient communities. This pilot, and the partnerships it brings, support this vision; supporting resident empowerment, connection and belonging across all of our neighbourhoods.
Clarion, SNG and Soha will be working with Neighbourly Lab to co-design how Neya is introduced to residents and adapted to their local area in Oxfordshire.
Grainne O’Dwyer, Director at Neighbourly Lab, said:
“This innovation project provides an exciting opportunity for communities to be more connected and work differently with their social housing provider. As a mission driven organisation focused on creating stronger and more connected communities, we are delighted to lead the project co-design with residents and resident led evaluation. Our aim is to ensure that Neya can best meet the needs of all residents, but in particular those who are lesser heard in traditional resident engagement”
The pilot will be assessed at six and twelve-months intervals, tracking changes in resident connection and participation, sense of belonging, confidence in their community to solve local problems, and trust in their landlord. A formal evaluation of the pilot will be conducted after the end of the pilot to inform decisions about future roll-out.
The funding for the project forms part of a £2 million package announced by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG), supporting 20 projects across England to strengthen tenants' voices and improve how landlords listen and respond.