How Fortem Solutions is bringing innovation and sustainability to social housing in the UK
As experts in social housing in the UK, Fortem delivers responsive repairs, capital works and retrofit, including high rise buildings that enhance homes with minimal disruption to residents. The company works nationally with long-term strategic partnerships with social housing landlords.
“As part of the Willmott Dixon Group, Fortem benefits from the credibility and recognition of being associated with a large brand while remaining a standalone business within the group,” opens Colin Read, Operations Director (Repairs). “We employ a highly skilled direct delivery workforce, supported by a central management team, and together, we successfully deliver projects across three workstreams: retrofit, repairs and maintenance and capital works.”
At its core, Fortem’s mission is to raise the bar in social housing to provide safe, warm, and decent homes for people across the UK. “Our ethos, that ‘Every Home Matters’, reflects our commitment to successful project and repairs delivery, it reminds us why our work is so important,” Colin states.
Complex project delivery
“Social housing is our sole focus and the only sector we’ve worked in since our inception in 2002. Considering our work, social value has always been a key element of our company culture; it’s about offering purpose beyond profit, leaving a positive impact on people’s lives and improving their communities.
“Our integrated repairs and maintenance service offers solutions from call handling, 24/7 responsive repairs, void refurbishments, and compliance work, including gas servicing, electrical testing, and fire safety.”
Andrew Brown, Director of Capital Works and Retrofit, elaborates: “Our retrofit services provide PAS2035 / PAS2030 compliant design, installation, and funding to a wide variety of energy efficiency measures including EWI, solar PV and thermal, ASHP, and enabling measures, such as ventilation systems and roof extensions.
“Lastly, our capital works are often delivered against specific sector funding for social housing landlords. We provide Capital Elemental Replacement programmes – kitchens, bathrooms, aids, and adaptations. Our work also includes complex projects in high rise buildings.”
Collaboration and innovation
Having recently won Most Innovative Contractor at the Housing Innovation Awards, we’re keen to understand how Fortem stays ahead of the curve. “Constantly using new systems and technologies has enabled exceptional performance and challenged the status quo to be the best in the industry,” Colin shares. “We’ve revolutionised near-miss health and safety reporting by introducing a streamlined digital form, for instance, allowing tradespeople and third parties to log near misses directly from the site.
“Working with our partner Talkdesk, we’ve also leveraged Talkdesk technology, digitally analysing calls to uncover trends, understand customer needs, and identify areas for improvement. Our award also recognised our approach to remote assistance where we have implemented video handovers through Connect, particularly in partnership with Lincolnshire Housing Partnerships. This process streamlines communication, improves resolution times, and ensures a seamless, cost-effective process for stakeholders. We are also using Azure AI, so we can now automate invoice processing by teaching the system to scan, extract, and automatically validate information against back-office data.”
Reflecting on how technology has impacted Fortem’s operations, Andrew says: “These advancements illustrate our commitment to challenging traditional practices through forward-thinking solutions, driving efficiency, safety, and excellence across our operations. Innovation lies at the core of our ethos, especially within the IT team, which is led by Chris Home, but our approach to innovation extends far beyond IT. It is deeply embedded across the company, demonstrated by our recent ‘Hackathon’ initiative to organise collaborative events that bring colleagues together to gain diverse perspectives on new technologies and processes. 
“We recently hosted a Hackathon to pilot Synthesia, an AI platform designed to revolutionise training, onboarding, and inductions. This culture of collaboration and innovation enables Fortem to break down silos, lead from the front, and build meaningful, early-stage connections that drive impactful change.”
Turning to projects, Fortem recently won Best Retrofit Project at The Northern Housing Awards for its work with Sanctuary on a £9-million retrofit programme in Shiregreen, Sheffield. This ambitious project aimed to improve housing conditions, tackle fuel poverty, and create local employment opportunities. As with every project, an essential component of its success was putting residents at the heart of operations. Speaking about the project, a Sanctuary resident commented: “Everyone was so respectful around my house. They left everything very clean and tidy, no mess at all. I suffer with mental health, and it took a lot for me to have this work done, but everyone made me feel at ease, I didn’t blink an eyelid. I felt like I was always kept in the loop and informed of everything.”
Fortem’s work with Sanctuary is just one example of how the company collaborates with others to create longstanding partnerships. Fortem also works with organisations like Birmingham City Council and Lincolnshire Housing Partnership (LHP), the latter of which resulted in Fortem winning Best Customer Service at The Northern Housing Awards.
“We’ve recently expanded our contract with Sanctuary to include retrofit improvement works in the Northwest and Yorkshire,” Andrew shares. “We are delivering a capital works programme for LHP and we’re also looking to support their Wave 3 funding retrofit works and repairs access service. This expansion has been largely due to our impressive customer journey and our outstanding access figures.”
People first
Another key area of focus for Fortem is sustainability, and the business has outlined a 2030 sustainability strategy: For Our Future. Focusing on three themes – For Planet, For Homes, and For Communities – the strategy aims to support clients as they strive to reduce carbon emissions and build homes that protect the wellbeing of future generations.
Fortem is leading the way in the UK’s social housing market and will undoubtedly continue its current trajectory. “In terms of growth, we’re focusing on three things: listening to our customers, concentrating on our people, and further understanding our market,” Andrew states. “Listening to and engaging with residents is a crucial aspect of our services and corporate ethos. We’re currently working with TPAS to introduce a residents’ board to improve our services, for instance, and we’re also launching an end-to-end customer engagement process to support residents throughout works, including resident portals, literature, and video animations.
“We know that people are our greatest asset, and it’s critical that they remain engaged, motivated, and have long-lasting careers. This year we’ve launched a trades focus group where trades from around the business meet once a quarter to provide tangible feedback and ensure everyone’s voices are heard. We’ve also launched our iLearn training platform, which provides every Fortem employee with access to over 400 training modules.
“Lastly, we’re embracing the concept of walking in our clients’ shoes, and we’re investing in our teams to better understand our clients’ issues to provide them with more meaningful services,” he adds. “We’re also working in partnership with industry organisations, such as Salford University Energy Hub, to host a roundtable and bring innovative products to our clients.
“These three things will guide our growth moving forward as we move closer to our target of reaching £300 million turnover by 2028,” Andrew concludes. “We’ve made several investments into a new head of technical, as well as design managers and planning functions, to fuel such growth. Above all, we’ll continue to improve how we deliver a better service that supports residents, as we truly believe that Every Home Matters.”