Government consults on new rights for social housing tenants to access information about their homes

The Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) has launched a consultation on the introduction of new Social Tenant Access to Information Requirements (STAIRS) that will allow social housing tenants and their representatives, such as their lawyers, to access information related to the management of their housing.

DLUHC said the types of information that could be requested might include: 

• Damp and mould: “tenants experiencing damp and mould could request information on how many other homes in their building have the same problem and what action the landlord has taken to repair, giving them the tools they need to take further action if they choose."
• Health and safety: including any information landlords hold about breaches in their properties and outcomes of any inspections. “Tenants could take further action through the Housing Ombudsman if their landlord isn’t making the repairs they need to make by law.”
• Repair times: “under new rules brought in by the Social Housing (Regulation) Act landlords must fix emergency repairs within 24 hours, tenants will be able to see how often their landlord is meeting this target and challenge them through the courts or take them to the Housing Ombudsman if they don’t”.  

Housing associations will also be forced to publish information about their performance, the Department said. 

Minister for Social Housing Baroness Scott said: “We are creating a culture of openness and transparency among social landlords and tenants, giving residents the tools they need to hold their landlords to account so they can raise standards to the high level they rightly expect.  

“This is part of the biggest government reforms to affect social housing in a decade, which will be crucial in addressing systemic issues relating to safety, quality and tenant-landlord relationships that were identified after the Grenfell Tower fire.”  

Landlords will have to provide the information unless it is reasonable not to, DLUHC said, with clear expectations on how landlords should respond to requests, while tenants will be able to complain to the Housing Ombudsman if they are not happy with how their information request has been handled.

The consultation, which can be viewed here, runs until 15 July 2024.

DLUHC is proposing to use the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities’ power to direct the Regulator of Social Housing on regulatory standards, to introduce requirements for private registered providers to comply with the requirements in the STAIRs policy statement.