The Social Tenant Access to Information Requirements (STAIRs) give tenants of housing associations and other private registered providers greater access to information about how their social housing is managed.
STAIRs does not apply to council tenants because local authorities are already covered by the Freedom of Information Act.
STAIRs is being introduced in two phases, with different requirements applying from 1 October 2026 and 1 April 2027.
Your landlord must routinely publish information about:
Your landlord must tell tenants about its publication scheme and make the information easy to identify and access. It must also make reasonable efforts to provide information offline where needed.
From 1 April 2027, you can make a written request for information your landlord holds about the management of its social housing.
You do not have to use the words “STAIRs request”. If it is clear that you are asking for information covered by STAIRs, your landlord should treat it as an information request. If your request is unclear, it should make reasonable efforts to help you clarify what you want.
Your landlord must acknowledge your request and should respond promptly and normally within 30 calendar days.
If it needs longer in exceptional circumstances, it should tell you why and when you can expect a response.
Your landlord cannot simply say it does not have information because it is held by a managing agent, contractor or another organisation managing housing on its behalf.
Where relevant information is held on its behalf, the landlord must make reasonable efforts to obtain it.
STAIRs does not require landlords to create new records that do not already exist.
The starting point is transparency, but there are circumstances where a landlord can refuse a request or withhold some information.
For example, it may be reasonable to protect:
Your landlord should consider whether information can be redacted rather than withholding the whole document.
It should balance the reasons for disclosure against the likelihood of harm. It cannot refuse simply because it does not like who is asking, why you want the information or what you might do with it. Reputational risk to the landlord is not, by itself, a reason to refuse disclosure.
A request can also be refused in some circumstances, including where it would take more than 18 hours of staff time to respond, it repeats an earlier request, it is unclear, or it is offensive or abusive.
If your request is refused, your landlord must explain why.
Some information can already be accessed through other statutory (legal) rights. This can include personal information and some service charge information.
If another statutory route applies, your landlord does not have to provide the information through STAIRs, but it should make reasonable efforts to tell you how to access it through the appropriate route.
If you are unhappy with information your landlord has published, or with the handling or outcome of an information request, you can ask for a STAIRs review.
Your landlord should normally complete the review within 30 calendar days.
The STAIRs review process is separate from your landlord’s normal complaints process.
If you remain unhappy after the review, or your landlord does not respond to it, you can take a STAIRs complaint to the Housing Ombudsman. You should normally do this within three months of the landlord’s review response.
The Ombudsman can look at whether your landlord followed the STAIRs requirements, properly considered whether information should be disclosed and adequately explained its decision. Where it finds something has gone wrong, it can require the landlord to take action. In some cases, this can include requiring information to be released.