The honest state of social housing procurement in 2026.

More than 40 social landlords told us what’s really going on inside their procurement teams. The result is our 2026 Member Insight Report, an unvarnished look at the pressures, priorities and progress happening across the sector right now.

From how teams are being resourced to how senior leaders still talk about procurement, the findings are candid. And for anyone working in or around social housing procurement, they’re worth paying attention to.

In this report you will discover:

• How procurement team sizes are changing, with 35% of respondents saying their team grew in the last twelve months, though nearly half still feel they don’t have enough people to do the job properly.
• Where organisations actually stand with the Procurement Act 2023, now more than a year in. Three quarters have updated their policies and procedures, but a significant minority are still playing catch-up and running real compliance risk as a result.
• Why “compliant” remains the word most associated with procurement by senior leaders, and what the growing presence of “strategic” and “value adding” in this year’s results suggests about where things are heading.
• The five spend visibility blind spots that keep appearing across the sector, including ICT, repairs and maintenance, legal services and development and construction, where procurement oversight is weakest.
• What procurement teams see as their biggest opportunities for the year ahead, from strengthening contract management and modernising processes to leveraging AI as a tool rather than a crutch.
• Our takeaways on how to make the most of frameworks, build spend analysis capability and shift procurement from a compliance function to a genuinely strategic one.

Ready to stay ahead of the market?

Download your free Supply Chain Sentiment Report Q3 2025 now and make smarter procurement decisions backed by real intelligence from the supply chain.