STAIRs readiness checklist for housing associations

What STAIRs is, in brief

The Social Tenant Access to Information Requirements give tenants of English private registered providers a right to information about how their homes and services are managed. The government set them out in a policy statement dated 30 September 2025 and directed the Regulator of Social Housing to make meeting it a standard. Complaints go to the landlord first, then to the Housing Ombudsman.

It applies in two stages:

Council tenants are not covered; they already use the Freedom of Information Act. Our STAIRs page explains how STAIRs differs from a subject access request.

Now: the publication scheme

• A publication scheme is live on your website, easy to find from the home page.
• It covers each area the policy statement lists, including stock, performance, spending, governance and decision-making, and housing management.
• Each item has an owner and a date it was last updated.
• You have a review cycle, so published information stays current.
• You have checked published documents for personal data before posting them, including hidden data in spreadsheets.

Before 1 April 2027: requests

Recognising requests

• Front-line staff can tell a STAIRs request from a subject access request, a complaint and a service request.
• Requests are passed to one owner the day they arrive.
• You help tenants make a valid request, as the policy statement expects.

Logging and clocks

• Requests go on a register with the date received and a 30 calendar day deadline.
• A request that is partly a SAR is split, so each part runs on its own clock.
• Extensions are recorded with the reason, and used only in the exceptional circumstances allowed.

Finding the information

• You know where housing management information is held: housing management system, asset and repairs systems, SharePoint, board papers, contractor portals.
• You have a method for estimating search time that you can show your working on, if you rely on the cost limit set by the policy statement.
• You do not create new records to answer a request, and you do not alter or delete information to avoid disclosing it.

Deciding what to withhold

• Officers know the grounds for refusal the policy statement allows, including the exemptions it borrows from FOI.
• Personal data about other people is redacted where that is reasonable, and the reason is recorded.
• Third parties, such as contractors, are consulted where their information is involved.

Responding and reviewing

• You have template acknowledgement, response and refusal letters.
• You have an internal review route, and staff know a tenant can then go to the Housing Ombudsman.
• Every response has a record of what was asked, searched, provided and withheld, and who decided. If a case goes to the Ombudsman, that record is the file.

Governance

• The board or a committee has been briefed, and knows how performance will be reported.
• One named person owns STAIRs compliance.
• Staff training is scheduled before April 2027.

Where providers are exposed

The Ombudsman will publish its determinations. A refusal that would once have passed quietly can end up public next to your complaints record. The common weak points are slow recognition of requests at the front line, cost-limit estimates without evidence, and no clear record of what was searched.

Requests about repairs, damp and mould, and service charges are likely to be common. If your records on those topics are spread across several systems, test how long it takes to pull them together now, before a tenant asks.

Questions

Sources

• MHCLG: Social Tenant Access to Information Requirements, policy statement
• MHCLG: STAIRs consultation response
• MHCLG: Direction on the Social Tenant Access to Information Requirements 2025
• Housing Ombudsman: new information rights for social housing tenants