The organisation’s William Sutton Prize is now in its sixth edition and features two awards and an enlarged £125,000 prize fund to celebrate Clarion’s 125th anniversary.
The first award, the William Sutton Prize for Sustainability, focuses on promoting the restoration and preservation of the natural world. Finalists’ concepts range from a vision to transform housing construction sites into live learning environments by Material Cultures to a tool for automating retrofit projects proposed by Bioregional.
Meanwhile, the second award, the William Sutton Prize for Connected Communities, aims to enhance community ties, promote inclusion and strengthen the social fabric of Clarion neighbourhoods.
This year’s finalists include an AI-powered digital ‘super-neighbour’ to bring communities together, a new outdoor gym in Bromley built from knives removed from the streets, and a programme that empowers under-represented young social housing residents to become future STEM leaders. See full details of the shortlisted entries below.
The £125,000 overall prize pot will be split between the winners of each category. In addition to the funding, the winners will also receive a tailored package of business support and the chance to collaborate with Clarion, its partners and sector-leading experts to turn their boldest and brightest ideas into reality.
The initiative is named after Clarion Housing Group’s founder, a Victorian entrepreneur who bequeathed his fortune to providing public housing. Today, Clarion is the largest housing association in the UK, managing 125,000 homes across 170 local authorities.
Chief executive Clare Miller said: ‘Innovation is the engine that drives progress in sustainability and in building stronger, more connected communities. At Clarion, we believe that empowering people to turn bold ideas into reality is essential for building a better future, and that’s why we created The William Sutton Prize.
‘The William Sutton Prize not only unlocks funding; it unlocks potential. It’s about backing the thinkers, the doers and the dreamers who are shaping homes, places, and lives for generations to come, and it’s inspiring to see such cutting-edge, creative thinking reflected in this year’s shortlist.’
2023 winner: A Home-Grown Solution to Delivering Net Zero by Bell Phillips Architects
Previous winners include Bell Phillips Architects, which won in 2023 alongside Building with Nature; Mole Architects, which won in 2022 prize with a zero-carbon community homebuilding system; and Surman Weston, whose Hackney School of Food created a ‘seed-to-spoon’ food education hub for primary school children.
Judges for this year’s prizes will include Peter Murray OBE, co-founder of New London Architecture, Tara Gbolade, co-founding director of Gbolade Design Studio, Matt Harvey-Agyemang, co-founder of POoR Collective, and Greg Fitzgerald, chief executive of Vistry Group.
The William Sutton Prize for Sustainability 2025: shortlist
The William Sutton Prize for Sustainability finalist: AdaptiveHeat by Eyesea Green
AdaptiveHeat
Eyesea Green
AdaptiveHeat addresses the urgent challenge of decarbonising heating in heritage and hard-to-retrofit homes, where traditional retrofit approaches are often unfeasible. The solution combines low-temperature air-source heat pumps, infrared ceiling panels and an AI-powered control platform called Eyesense to deliver more precise, resident-responsive heating. By heating only occupied spaces in real time, it can reduce energy use by over 40 per cent while enhancing comfort. This plug-and-play system enables low-cost, non-invasive retrofitting, particularly suited to social housing and listed buildings. For the housing association, it could offer a way to meet carbon reduction targets across complex housing stock, with minimal tenant disruption. More broadly, it could support national decarbonisation goals, lower energy bills, reduce fuel poverty and improve resident wellbeing.
The William Sutton Prize for Sustainability finalist: BeeBlox by NoMAD
BeeBlox
NoMAD
BeeBlox addresses two urgent challenges: the rapid decline of pollinators due to habitat loss; and the environmental impact of concrete, which contributes 8 per cent of global CO₂ emissions. This innovative solution replaces solid concrete retaining walls with beautiful, modular green 3D printed walls made from 96 per cent local waste materials. Each hexagonal unit supports native wild bees by providing tailored soil, shelter, and seasonal forage, co-designed with experts from Kew Gardens. Suitable for use along roads, railways and canals, BeeBlox reconnects fragmented ecosystems and brings biodiversity into everyday infrastructure. For the housing association and the sector more widely, it could offer a solution to meet biodiversity net gain targets, become an off-the-shelf ‘net zero net gain’ alternative to solid concrete walls, and regenerate grey infrastructure into nature-rich, climate-resilient places.
The William Sutton Prize for Sustainability finalist: Home Schooling by Material Cultures
Home Schooling
Material Cultures
Home Schooling is a forward-thinking development model that transforms housing construction sites into live learning environments that teach biobased building skills, support local material supply chains and restore biodiversity. It tackles three interlinked challenges: the housing crisis, the green skills gap, and the environmental toll of conventional development. Each pilot is a small-scale housing project built with local, low-carbon materials, rooted in bioregional supply chains and delivered through community land trusts. By linking sites of cultivation (like forests and farms) with design, planning, on-site construction and accredited training, the model builds skills, biodiversity and new homes simultaneously. With replication, it has the potential to seed a nationwide network of regenerative housing projects, creating a new generation of climate-conscious builders while revitalising local economies and ecosystems.
The William Sutton Prize for Sustainability finalist: ReHarvest Board by Agricycle Innovation
ReHarvest Board
Agricycle Innovation
ReHarvest Board turns agricultural waste – such as spent mushroom substrate, fruit pulp, and vegetable residues – into low-carbon, high-performance insulation and wall panels. Manufactured using low-energy, non-toxic methods, each panel is lightweight, fire and water-resistant, and can reduce embodied carbon by up to 80 per cent compared with traditional plasterboard and insulation. With over one million tonnes of agricultural waste generated annually in the UK, much of it landfilled or incinerated, ReHarvest Board offers a scalable solution that diverts waste, cuts emissions, and lowers energy use in buildings. It supports both retrofits and new-builds, promoting healthier, more sustainable homes. Aligned with the housing association’s environmental, social and governance goals, this innovation tackles waste, energy, and affordability challenges, bringing material science into real-world impact and advancing the housing association’s leadership in low-carbon, circular construction.
The William Sutton Prize for Sustainability finalist: Retrofit Automation Tool by Bioregional
Retrofit Automation Tool
Bioregional
Bioregional’s Retrofit Automation Tool addresses the urgent need for faster, more reliable retrofit planning across housing portfolios. Built on empirical data (rather than just theoretical models), the tool can process messy datasets, integrate them with geographic property data and smart meter readings, and generate decarbonisation pathways based on real-world performance. It compresses 6-to-12 months of manual analysis into clear, actionable strategies, enabling housing associations to move quickly, implement solutions and cut carbon emissions. The tool complements existing platforms like Parity by unlocking smart meter-level insights, and supports both domestic and non-domestic properties. For the housing association, it could offer a new data-driven route to estate-wide decarbonisation and retrofit programmes.
The William Sutton Prize for Sustainability finalist: Re-Use House by WeCanMake
Re-Use House
WeCanMake
ReUse House tackles the climate and housing crises by transforming overlooked urban spaces into new homes, using reclaimed building materials. It identifies small infill plots, like garage sites, and combines them with reclaimed materials from nearby end-of-life buildings. These materials are processed in a local neighbourhood factory and used to build high-quality, co-designed homes for social rent. The model includes open-source tools for mapping materials, recertifying components, and training local trades in reuse techniques. Environmentally, this approach reduces embodied carbon, preserves biodiversity by avoiding greenfield development, and reduces waste. In south Bristol alone, it could deliver up to 5,620 new affordable homes across 853 public land sites, while saving 20 per cent of infrastructure costs compared with greenfield development, demonstrating that circular housing can benefit people, places and the planet.
The William Sutton Prize for Connected Communities 2025: shortlist
The William Sutton Prize for Connected Communities finalist: Betts Park Outdoor Gym by Steel Warriors
Betts Park Outdoor Gym
Steel Warriors
Steel Warriors is revitalising underused public spaces in urban environments – areas with a history of crime, deprivation, and broken infrastructure – by co-creating new outdoor gyms built from knives removed from the streets. Working with local residents, councils and social housing communities, the project will replace a broken gym in Bromley’s Betts Park with a striking, high-quality space for exercise, training and events. The outdoor gym will host free weekly classes for all ages, including targeted sessions for young people and women, plus mentoring and qualifications for local young people not in employment, education or training. For the sector, this could be a replicable blueprint for turning neglected spaces into safe, inclusive hubs of activity, strengthening wellbeing, reducing isolation and improving local connection through community-led design.
The William Sutton Prize for Connected Communities finalist: Building Connected Communities by GoodGym
Building Connected Communities
GoodGym
GoodGym tackles loneliness, poor mental health, and rising safety concerns among older social housing residents, many of whom live alone and feel increasingly isolated. The initiative attracts, trains and mobilises local volunteers to run, walk or cycle to visit residents for friendly chats (social visits) or to complete practical tasks (missions). These include changing lightbulbs, moving furniture, clearing gardens, prescription pick-up and fixing safety risks – small jobs that help people live independently. GoodGym aims to train 200 new volunteers and deliver 2,000 visits and missions in the housing association’s communities. Independent evaluations from similar programmes show drops in loneliness amongst residents and improvements in mental health.
The William Sutton Prize for Connected Communities finalist: Neya AI Super-Neighbour for Connected Thriving Neighbourhoods by NeighbourlyLab and Neya
Neya AI Super-Neighbour for Connected Thriving Neighbourhoods
NeighbourlyLab and Neya
Neya is a digital ‘super-neighbour’ designed to spark connection, sharing, and mutual support within local communities. Through a friendly, AI-powered messaging platform, Neya introduces neighbours, answers everyday questions, and encourages simple, positive interactions, such as borrowing a ladder, finding a walking buddy or sharing surplus food. It can also connect residents to nearby events, services or groups, based on their needs and interests. Especially helpful for those new to an area or living alone, Neya helps foster a stronger sense of belonging, safety, and pride. By making it easier to ask for help, offer support, or simply say hello, Neya builds resilient, more connected communities where people are empowered to take part in everyday life together.
The William Sutton Prize for Connected Communities finalist: Populated Planters by Wastesmiths CIC
Populated Planters
Wastesmiths CIC
Populated Planters reimagines how shared spaces in social housing are shaped by turning the installation of planters into a hands-on community experience. Rather than using off-the-shelf products, residents co-design and help build bespoke planters using recycled wood and plastic they’ve collected themselves, delivered in outdoor workshops using mobile, low-energy machinery. The process builds relationships, ownership and pride in place. It fosters intergenerational connection, increases biodiversity and activates overlooked areas. For the housing association, it offers a model for regenerating neglected communal spaces through low-cost, high-impact resident-led making. In doing so, it strengthens community bonds and resilience, reduces social isolation and creates visible change driven by the people who live there.
The William Sutton Prize for Connected Communities finalist: Sustainable London by Motivez
Sustainable London
Motivez
Sustainable London empowers under-represented young people aged 14-16 (from social housing) to become environmental innovators and future STEM leaders. It aims to tackle environmental inequality and poor air quality in deprived London communities, which disproportionately impacts the health and wellbeing of social housing residents – particularly young people. Through a year-long development programme that includes workshops, mentoring, industry site visits and a STEM-based hackathon, participants design solutions to local and global environmental challenges. They learn from relatable role models, pitch to professionals and access environments – like corporate offices – they wouldn’t normally see. The programme builds confidence, creativity, resilience and climate leadership where it’s needed most. A recent pilot showed 70 per cent were more likely to pursue STEM careers and 88 per cent gained soft skills to lead change.