Social Tenant Access to Information Requirements (STAIRs) support guide

About STAIRs

From 1 October 2026, residents of private registered providers (PRPs) can ask for information about how your landlord runs its services. This request is under the Social Tenant Access to Information Requirements (STAIRs).

This includes:

how your landlord makes decisions and is held to account, including who is responsible for running the organisation
the money your landlord spends to run services and make repairs
the homes your landlord owns or manages
how well your landlord is doing, including how quickly it responds to repairs and complaints

Your landlord must also make this information available on its website.

The review and complaint process

If the information you need is not on your landlords website, or you cannot access it, you can make a request to them.

There are 3 steps you must take if you want to request information.

Information request
Review request
Complain to us

Helpful Links

Social Tenant Access to Information Requirements (STAIRs) (Opens in a new tab)

Information requests

Make a request to your landlord directly, clearly setting out what information you would like to know.

How your landlord should respond to information requests

When you make a request, your landlord must:

respond within 30 calendar days of your request being made
tell you if it needs more time, and when you can expect a response
consider whether it is a reasonable request and if they can respond
provide information in a format you can access
have a policy on how it responds to information requests
explain why it has not shared certain information, for example if it is commercially sensitive

Your landlord can refuse to respond to an information request if:

the request is a repeat of a previous one
it is reasonable to withhold the information
your identity cannot be confirmed
your request is unclear
the information is not related to the management of social housing
responding would take its staff more than 18 hours provide
the request is offensive or abusive

Social Tenant Access to Information Requirements: policy statement

Review requests

If you are dissatisfied with your landlord’s response to your information request, or the information has not been published under Chapter 1, you can ask your landlord for a review.

Tell your landlord:

what information you think it should provide, or has not provided
why you are dissatisfied with its response

Your landlord should respond to a review request within 30 calendar days.

Complain to us

If your landlord does not respond to your review request within 30 calendar days, or you remain dissatisfied with the response, you can bring a complaint to us.

You must submit a complaint to us within 3 months from the date of a review response. After this point, we may not be able to accept the complaint.

We can only consider STAIRs complaints from 1 October 2026. You will be able to bring a STAIRs complaint to us through our online complaint form or by calling us on 0300 111 3000.

How we consider STAIRs complaints

When we receive a STAIRs complaint, we will first check whether we can investigate it.

If we can, we will:

ask you and your landlord for any further information we need
assess whether your landlord correctly followed the government STAIRs policy statement and their own policy
examine all the circumstances of the case
send you and your landlord a decision report and publish it online

Please note, a request made under STAIRs is separate from your landlord’s normal complaints procedure, which must comply with the Complaint Handling Code.

Requesting information under other Schemes

Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) and Subject Access Requests (SARs) are ways people can ask organisations for information they hold. General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is a law that protects people’s personal information and tells organisations how they must handle it.

The FOIA does not apply to housing providers as they are not public bodies. STAIRs has been introduced so tenants of providers can access information.

STAIRs does not override data protection rules. Personal safeguarding data will always be protected under the GDPR.

If you are asking for information that is likely to include your own personal data, this will usually not fall under STAIRs. It should be treated as a SAR. If your landlord does not respond to a SAR, you should complain to the Information Commissioner. 

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