Social Tenant Access to Information Requirements consultation announced

On 20 May, the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) launched a consultation on directions to the Regulator of Social Housing to introduce a new standard that will require social landlords to be transparent with their residents about the management of their homes. The commitment to introduce an access to information scheme was first proposed by the Social Housing White Paper and brought forward by the Social Housing Regulation Act.

This consultation is continuing during the busy pre-election period, and we want to ensure that we submit a strong response which represents our members’ views on the proposed requirements. Please get in touch with any feedback by Friday 14 June.

The consultation proposes the introduction of Social Tenant Access to Information Requirements (STAIRs), which would:

• Enable residents to request information about their home’s management. There will be specific requirements about how these requests are processed, including a timeframe to respond within.
• Require housing associations to proactively publish information via a publication scheme. The consultation also outlines how complaints about the scheme would be addressed.

In order to help you with your responses, we are putting together a briefing on the proposals and will also host a roundtable to get your feedback directly. These will be announced later this month.

If you have any questions about the consultation or our wider Social Housing Regulation Act work, please get in touch. You can access the full consultation on the government website.