Social Tenant Access to Information Requirements (STAIRs).
Learn about the new scheme launched by the Government and Regulator of Social Housing in 2026, which states what information and documents must be made available by your registered social housing provider.
STAIRs is a new statutory standard that ensures registered social housing providers publish certain information to ensure transparency between them and their tenants.
This access to information empowers tenants to understand what services are being provided, how your home is being managed, and to see how your landlord is performing.
Does the STAIRs scheme apply to me? How do I access it?
The Social Tenant Access to Information Requirements (STAIRs) scheme establishes what information your registered social housing provider (including Orwell Housing) must make available. Your provider must proactively publish and make this information available, and make tenants aware of the publication scheme so that the information can be easily identified.
Information requests can be made by a social housing tenant of the registered provider, or a tenant may nominate a designated representative to communicate on their behalf. For a request to be valid, the applicant must be identifiable and the request must be made in writing. A tenant or their designated representative does not have to mention STAIRs in order for the requirements under STAIRs to apply. Registered providers must make reasonable effort to assist applicants to make a clear and valid request.
What types of information can I request under the STAIRs scheme?
Most of the information about Orwell Housing Group can be found on our website already, or has been published elsewhere, and below you will find links to the relevant pages.
Governance and Decision Making
Any tenants or individuals who wish to learn about Orwell Housing’s governance and decision making can explore our About Us page, or explore the below bullet points to find out more.
Senior staff names and roles
If you wish to discover who Our Board Members or Executive Team Members are then please follow these links.
Governance arrangements
You can explore our Governance Reports and our Strategic Plans through these links, and you can view all of our Published Reports here.
Decision making processes and policies
To learn more about our decision making processes you can browse our Strategic Plans and explore all of our Published Reports. You can also find Our Policies here.
Prioritisation of complaints
To understand our complaints procedure better you can view our Complaints Page, which details every step of the process.
Information on tenant consultations
There are many ways in which we engage with tenants: Orwell Housing customers can use the Get Involved page to interact with us through methods like the Orwell Residents Group, Surveys, and more.
Finance and Spending
Orwell Housing Group are committed to transparent finance and spending practices. Explore the links below to find out more.
- You can explore all of our Annual Accounts, our Annual Reports, Gender Pay Gap, and Value for Money Reports information by clicking the links provided.
- All of our procurement details can be found on our Procurement page.
Housing Stock Management
Housing Stock Management refers to how we supply, manage, and service/repair our homes for tenants.
- Under the Your Tenancy page we have lots of resources that explain how your home is managed.
- You can find how we care for your home on the Repairs and Maintenance page.
- The Care and Support page details a more specialised set of information about what homes we provide.
- The Looking for a Home page provides information about access to becoming a tenant or exchanging your tenancy.
Performance
To ensure we are providing a good level of service to our customers we monitor and publish the results of our performance. To explore our published results you can visit the Our Performance page.
You can see how we gather our reports by visiting the Tenant Satisfaction Measures page, and you can view the 2025/26 results here.
Housing Services
At Orwell Housing Group we pride ourselves on the level and extent of support and guidance that we offer to our tenants. You can view these resources by exploring the following links:
- The Support and Wellbeing page has advice and information regarding: Your Home, Money, Employment and Health and Wellbeing.
- We also provide a Support and Advice Toolkit that has an extensive range of topics and information within it.
- Further guidance and advice for tenants can be found on the I am a Customer page.
- Orwell has a proud history of helping people gain independence, skills and the confidence needed to live well and get the most out of life. To understand what we offer please explore our Care and Support page.
Lists and Registers
This part of the scheme is in reference to: information held in registers required by law, and other lists and registers relating to the management of social housing. Please contact us if you wish to find out more, or if you wish to request information relating to this.
Please be aware that we will not be required to disclose information where doing so would bring us into conflict with any statutory provisions.
Social Housing Management
To best understand the standards and procedures we have when managing social housing please visit the Our Policies page.
What types of information can I request?
If you wish to request information regarding the management of your property then you either need to be a tenant of the registered provider, or a tenant may nominate a designated representative to communicate with their provider on their behalf.
The information being requested has to be relevant to your social housing provider or the body/person responsible for the subject in question. These topics in question must relate to: the management of your social housing property, the details of their policies, plans and actions undertaken by your provider, or the information that is captured and stored to support their decision making.
Examples of information that can be requested are:
- Estate management, communal areas and boundaries.
- Rent rates and collection.
- Complaints handling, procedures and performance.
- Communication and customer service
If you’d like to learn more about the STAIRs scheme then you can either contact us or visit the gov.uk site.
If you’d like to find out more or talk through your options, we’d love to hear from you.
Whether you have a question, want to find out more about our services, or would like to talk through your support options, our team is happy to help.
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