LOTI Model Highlights Regional Collaboration in London’s Tech Innovation

The London Office of Technology & Innovation (LOTI) provides a framework for regional collaboration on technology and data initiatives across London’s councils. This approach supports joint efforts to address complex city-wide challenges using shared expertise and resources.

Before LOTI’s establishment, London’s 33 councils managed data separately, which limited coordinated service delivery and made preventative action more difficult. LOTI’s model addresses these issues by offering design, project management, and legal support to connect data and processes between councils.

LOTI brings together data from every borough and eight major homelessness charities, enabling housing teams to visualise rough sleeping patterns across the city. This integration supports the design of more preventative interventions for homelessness.

The organisation has also facilitated the sharing of information about children eligible for free school meals, ensuring that students do not miss out on support if they attend school outside their home borough. This data-sharing approach helps prevent gaps in assistance for vulnerable children.

What the numbers show

• 20 London boroughs use identical IoT sensors in social housing
• 33 boroughs previously held isolated data before LOTI’s creation
• Eight major homelessness charities participate in LOTI’s data integration

LOTI has deployed Internet of Things (IoT) sensors in social housing across 20 boroughs to monitor temperature and humidity. The collected data helps predict and prevent damp and mould, reducing the risk of health problems for residents.

Regional experimentation with artificial intelligence is coordinated by LOTI, allowing boroughs to test applications such as triaging social care inboxes and managing housing complaints. Lessons learned from these trials are shared to accelerate collective learning across councils.

In collaboration with directors of adult social care, LOTI has used immersive theatre to simulate service user journeys. This method brings together public, third, and private sector participants to co-design new solutions, including volunteer mobilisation tested in simulated environments.

LOTI maintains a library of detailed implementation guides to support the replication and scaling of technology and innovation projects across boroughs. Eddie Copeland, the Director of LOTI, stated that dedicated full-time roles are essential for this kind of collaboration and that regional efforts can optimise services and address challenges more effectively than isolated approaches.

* This article is based on publicly available information at the time of writing.