In this episode of the Healthier Housing Podcast, Lewis Sheldrake joins us to talk about how technology - specifically the Internet of Things and connected sensor systems - is beginning to fundamentally change the way social housing providers understand their stock, support their residents, and collaborate with health and care partners.
Lewis brings a perspective shaped by years working at the intersection of technology, health outcomes and housing management. His view is that the sector is at an inflection point: data that was once locked inside manual inspection reports and call logs can now flow continuously from homes to dashboards, enabling genuinely proactive decision-making.
"The housing sector has been reactive for decades. IoT gives us the ability to finally get ahead of problems - to act on what the building is telling us before a resident has to make a complaint." Lewis Sheldrake · Healthier Housing Podcast Ep. 2
COSIE homes: Reading the Building
Lewis discusses how COSIE homes - IoTSG's damp and mould monitoring platform - works by placing discreet sensors throughout a property that continuously track temperature, relative humidity, CO₂ and VOC levels. This creates a living record of a home's environment, rather than a snapshot from a single inspection.
The data doesn't just tell landlords when conditions are bad - it tells them why. Is a bedroom chronically cold because of missing insulation? Is humidity spiking in the kitchen because ventilation has failed? Is the dew point rising toward the condensation threshold? COSIE homes surfaces all of this in a single platform, ranked by risk, so housing teams can prioritise the homes that need attention most urgently.
DORIS care: Supporting Independent Living
Lewis also explores DORIS care - IoTSG's assisted living monitoring solution - which takes a similar sensor-led approach but focuses on the patterns of daily life that signal wellbeing. Passive sensors detect movement, detect changes in routine, and alert care teams when something falls outside of the resident's established baseline.
Crucially, DORIS care achieves this without cameras, without wearables, and without requiring residents to actively engage with any technology. It is designed to be invisible, restoring dignity and independence while giving families and care coordinators the reassurance they need.
- No cameras, no wearables - privacy by design
- Baseline-learning algorithms adapt to each resident's routine
- Alerts delivered to family members and/or care coordinators
- Integrates with council and housing association care management systems
Data Integration and the Health–Housing Interface
One of the most important themes in Lewis's conversation is the potential to link housing data with health outcomes data. Today, these datasets are almost entirely separate. NHS data lives in GP systems and hospital records. Housing data lives in asset management platforms. Neither side can easily see what the other knows about a shared resident or patient.
Lewis argues that closing this gap - even partially - would allow integrated care systems to identify at-risk individuals earlier, reduce avoidable hospital admissions, and justify investment in preventive housing improvements on the basis of downstream NHS cost savings.
IoTSG is already working with local authorities and housing associations to pilot data-sharing frameworks that connect COSIE homes environmental reports with GP and community health teams. The early results suggest a compelling case for scaling this approach across the sector.