Our Work

Hidden Voices to be Heard

Hidden Voices to be Heard is a live tenant engagement programme exploring how digital technology can help more residents influence decisions about their homes, neighbourhoods and housing services.

Led by Loconomy and supported by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government’s Social Housing Innovation Fund, the programme is one of 20 projects across England testing new approaches to strengthening tenants’ voices.

The programme will pilot a new digital engagement platform, VoiceUp, in Castle Vale with The Pioneer Group and in Druids Heath with Birmingham City Council.

Programme Overview

Residents’ experiences are essential to improving housing services and shaping neighbourhood change. However, meetings, formal consultations and other traditional engagement methods do not work for everyone.

Younger residents, disabled residents, carers, working households and people who do not usually take part in formal participation structures can all face barriers to having their voices heard.

Hidden Voices to be Heard is exploring how digital engagement can complement existing face-to-face activity and create additional, accessible ways for residents to participate.

Designed with Residents

VoiceUp has been shaped through an intensive co-design process involving around 50 tenants from across Birmingham.

Residents took part in workshops to explore the barriers that prevent people from engaging, the ways in which they would feel comfortable sharing their experiences and the features that could make a digital platform useful and accessible. Participants also reviewed and commented on the initial designs.

This process produced a resident-informed design brief for the platform. Loconomy subsequently appointed Birmingham-based digital design cooperative The Developer Society to design and build VoiceUp.

The design and development phase is now nearing completion, with final work taking place before testing begins.

The VoiceUp Pilots

From October 2026 to March 2027, VoiceUp will be piloted in two Birmingham communities:

The platform is being developed as a safe, moderated and accessible space where residents can share their experiences, respond to questions and contribute to conversations about their neighbourhood and housing services.

VoiceUp is intended to complement existing engagement rather than replace opportunities for residents to meet and speak with people face to face.

The two pilots will help us understand how residents use the platform, what enables wider participation and how digital engagement can help housing providers respond more effectively to residents’ experiences and priorities.

Our Role

Loconomy is leading the programme, working with tenants, housing partners and The Developer Society to develop, test and evaluate VoiceUp.

We will support engagement in both pilot communities, help manage and moderate the platform, and explore how the insights shared by residents can contribute to decisions and service improvement.

As the pilots progress, we will share further updates, learning and opportunities for residents to participate.