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Guide · STAIRs: the data side

Could you find it in 30 days?

From 1st April 2027 any tenant can ask for records about how their home is managed. This guide covers the part most STAIRs advice skips: where the information lives, how to retrieve and redact it, and what to log.

Book a callRun the STAIRs readiness check

By Catalyst BI housing data teamLast reviewed 3rd November 202612 minute read

30 daysto respond to a requestExtensions only in exceptional circumstances.
18 hoursof staff timeAbove this, a request may be refused. Only useful if you know where to look.
1st April 2027requests startThe publication scheme has been live since 1st October 2026.

00The argument

Why is STAIRs a data problem, not just a policy one?

Most STAIRs guidance covers policy, exemptions and complaints. Very little covers how you find the information in the first place.

30 daysfrom request to response, from 1st April 2027

The Social Tenant Access to Information Requirements (STAIRs) give social housing tenants a right to information about how their homes are managed. Private registered providers have run a publication scheme since 1st October 2026. From 1st April 2027, tenants, including licensees and shared owners, or their representatives can make individual information requests, and you have 30 calendar days to respond (Trowers and Hamlins).

Law firms and data protection consultancies have covered the policy side well. The harder question for most housing associations is practical: where does a given tenant's repairs history, ASB record or complaint file actually live, and can you pull it together, redact it and send it within a month?

Why does that matter now?

Because the clock starts on 1st April 2027 and the information is spread across systems that were never built to be searched together. If finding the records takes most of the 30 days, there is no time left to check, redact and approve them. And a refusal on the 18-hour ground only holds if you can show the time was genuinely needed, not lost hunting for data.

This guide is written for the Head of Data and Insights and the analysts who will be asked to make STAIRs work. It covers what is in scope, where the information usually lives, how to retrieve and redact it, what to log, and what to build between now and April.

01What is in scope

What information can tenants ask for?

Almost anything about how their home is managed, if you hold it, including what contractors hold on your behalf.

8categories of information tenants can request

Individual requests can cover records and policies on:

  • Repairs and property condition, including repair history, inspections and stock condition.
  • Rent and service charges, including how they were set and what was charged.
  • Anti-social behaviour, including how reports were handled.
  • Complaints handling, including outcomes and timescales.
  • Health and safety, including safety checks and hazard records.
  • Property moves, staffing and training, and stock management.

The scope covers information held by you and by anyone managing your social housing on your behalf. That brings contractors and managing agents into it, so your contracts need to let you retrieve their information in time (Trowers and Hamlins).

What is excluded?

  • Information with an existing access right under the Freedom of Information Act or Environmental Information Regulations.
  • Information created after the request was received.
  • Matters decided by councils, such as allocations and homelessness decisions.
  • Property management unrelated to social housing functions.

Do we have to create new records?

No. STAIRs covers information you already hold. But a record you cannot find is, in practice, a record you cannot provide, and failing to find it is not one of the grounds for refusal.

Questions to ask your team
  • Do we know which of our contractors and managing agents hold in-scope information?
  • Do our contracts let us get that information back within the deadline?
  • Have we published our policy on withholding information?

02Where it lives

Where does the information actually live?

In most housing associations, a single tenancy's records sit in five to eight places. The first job is to write that list down.

1 listthe catalogue of where every type of record lives

The table below is a typical starting point. Your own list will differ, which is exactly why it needs writing down.

InformationWhere it usually livesWhat usually goes wrong
Repairs historyHousing management or repairs system, contractor portalsUpdates from property visits held only in a contractor portal or field app
Property conditionAsset management system, stock condition survey filesSurvey data held as spreadsheets or PDFs, not linked to the property record
Rent and service chargesHousing management and finance systemsService charge workings held in spreadsheets
Anti-social behaviourCase management system, CRM, emailRecords naming other residents, so heavy redaction
ComplaintsCRM or complaints system, contact centre recordingsComplaints logged against the person, not the property
Health and safetyCompliance systems for gas, electrical, fire and waterCertificates stored as documents with inconsistent property references

What makes a usable catalogue?

For each system: what it holds, which STAIRs category that maps to, how records are identified (property reference, tenancy reference, person), who owns it and how data gets out. The most common blocker is identifiers. If the repairs system, the contractor portal and the compliance system each identify a home differently, every request becomes a manual matching exercise.

The same catalogue supports subject access requests and the wider governance the Regulator expects, so it earns its keep beyond STAIRs.

Questions to ask your team
  • Could someone new to the team find every system that holds repairs records for one address?
  • Is the same property identified the same way in every system?
  • Who owns each system, and who would retrieve from it?

03Retrieve and redact

How do you retrieve and redact within 30 days?

Retrieval should take hours, not weeks, so the time goes on checking and approval rather than searching.

18 hoursof staff time, above which a request may be refused

What does a single retrieval route look like?

Data from each system in the catalogue lands in one governed platform, keyed to a consistent property and tenancy reference. A request then becomes a filtered query: this tenancy, these categories, this date range. Fivetran or Qlik Talend can handle the connections, a platform such as Snowflake or Databricks holds the data, and dbt or Coalesce builds the joined model.

How should redaction work?

STAIRs lets you withhold or redact third-party personal data under UK GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018, and notes that removing names may not be enough to stop someone being identified (Trowers and Hamlins). Two practical steps help:

  • Tag personal data at source. Classify columns that hold names, contact details and other identifiers so masking policies apply automatically to anyone who is not the requester.
  • Keep a human review. Free-text fields such as ASB notes and complaint narratives still need a person to check them. Automation narrows that review; it does not replace it.

What about withholding?

You must publish a policy on withholding, and document each decision: the exemption relied on, the harm identified and the public interest balance. Reputational risk is not a valid reason, and you cannot refuse because of who is asking or why. Recording those decisions alongside the request makes them easy to defend to the Housing Ombudsman.

Questions to ask your team
  • Could we pull one tenancy's repairs, complaints and safety records from one starting point?
  • Would other residents' names and details be masked automatically?
  • Could we show how long a request took, if we needed to refuse on the 18-hour ground?

04Log and report

What should you log, and who will ask for it?

The Regulator monitors STAIRs compliance and the Housing Ombudsman handles disputes. Both will want evidence of how you handled requests.

2 bodiescan ask how you handled a request: the Regulator and the Ombudsman

The Regulator of Social Housing monitors STAIRs compliance as part of its standards framework, and persistent non-compliance can lead to intervention. Tenants who are unhappy after your internal review, which normally takes 30 calendar days, can take the dispute to the Housing Ombudsman, which can ask for information and make orders (Trowers and Hamlins).

What belongs in a request log?

  • The request itself: date received, requester type (tenant or representative), property and tenancy, and the categories asked for.
  • The clock: acknowledgement date, 30-day deadline, any extension and the reason for it.
  • The work: systems searched, staff time spent and redactions applied.
  • The outcome: date sent, information provided or withheld, the exemption relied on and the public interest reasoning.
  • The follow-up: internal review requested, its outcome, and any Ombudsman referral.

Why log in a data platform rather than a spreadsheet?

Because the log becomes a dataset the board and the Regulator will ask about. Held alongside your repairs and complaints data, it can show which categories drive requests, which estates generate them and whether response times are slipping, before a pattern turns into a complaint.

Questions to ask your team
  • Where will we record each request, its deadline and its outcome?
  • Could we report volumes, response times and refusals by month?
  • Would our log show the board where requests are piling up?

05What to build first

What should you build before 1st April 2027?

Five months is enough for a working catalogue, a retrieval route for the highest-volume categories and a request log, if you start with the data rather than the policy.

5 monthsfrom November to the 1st April 2027 start date
  1. November to December: write the catalogue. List every system and contractor that holds in-scope information, what it holds, how it identifies homes and tenancies, and who owns it.
  2. December to January: fix the identifiers. Agree one property reference and one tenancy reference, and map every system to them. This is the step most associations underestimate.
  3. January to February: connect the priority sources. Start with repairs, complaints and health and safety, the categories most likely to be requested, and land them in one governed platform.
  4. February to March: build retrieval and masking. A single query by tenancy and category, with other residents' personal data masked automatically and free text flagged for review.
  5. March: test with real scenarios. Run five mock requests end to end, time them, and log them as if they were live.

Does this duplicate our Awaab's Law work?

No, it reuses it. The joined repairs and hazard data you need for Awaab's Law Phase 2 is the same data a STAIRs request about repairs and property condition will draw on. Build the property and tenancy model once and both obligations use it. See how on our social housing page.

Do we need to replace our systems?

No. Your housing management, repairs and CRM systems stay as they are. The catalogue and retrieval layer sit alongside them, and alongside Power BI or Microsoft Fabric if you already run them. Every engagement ends with your team owning what was built.

The STAIRs data readiness check

How ready is your data for 1st April 2027?

Ten statements about your own data. Tick the ones that are true today and your score updates as you go. Nothing is recorded.

0/10

Early days. Most requests would start with a manual search. Write the catalogue first, then fix the identifiers.

Talk through your score

FAQs

What do data teams ask about STAIRs?

Not covered here? Ask us directly.

What is STAIRs?

STAIRs stands for the Social Tenant Access to Information Requirements. They give tenants of private registered providers a right to information about how their homes are managed. A publication scheme has applied since 1st October 2026, and individual information requests start on 1st April 2027.

When do STAIRs information requests start?

1st April 2027. From that date tenants, including licensees and shared owners, or their representatives can request information, and housing associations have 30 calendar days to respond, with extensions only in exceptional circumstances.

What information can tenants request under STAIRs?

Records and policies about repairs and property condition, rent and service charges, anti-social behaviour, complaints handling, health and safety, property moves, staffing and training, and stock management. It covers information held by the landlord or anyone managing its social housing on its behalf.

Can a STAIRs request be refused?

Yes, in defined cases. A request can be refused if responding would take more than 18 hours of staff time, and information can be withheld on grounds such as commercial sensitivity, confidentiality or third-party personal data. Reputational risk and the requester's identity or reasons are not valid grounds.

Do we have to create new records for STAIRs?

No. STAIRs covers information you already hold. But you still need to be able to find it across your systems and your contractors' systems within the 30-day deadline.

Why is STAIRs a data problem?

Because the records a tenant can ask for are usually spread across five to eight systems that identify homes and tenancies differently. Without a catalogue of where information lives and a consistent property and tenancy reference, every request becomes a manual search.

How do we redact other residents' data in a STAIRs response?

Tag personal data such as names and contact details in your data platform so it is masked automatically for anyone who is not the requester, then have a person review free-text fields such as ASB notes before anything is sent. Removing names alone may not stop someone being identified.

Who enforces STAIRs?

The Regulator of Social Housing monitors compliance as part of its standards framework. The Housing Ombudsman handles individual disputes once your internal review is complete and can request information and make orders.

Sources

Every date and figure on this page is attributed to a named source.

  1. Trowers and Hamlins, STAIRs: what social housing providers need to know about the new transparency requirementsJune 2026. Dates, scope, exclusions, the 30-day and 18-hour rules, withholding and enforcement.
  2. Price Bailey, STAIRs: what housing associations need to know2026.
  3. Kennedys, The Data (Use and Access) Act 2025: commencement dates and planned guidance for 2026
  4. Regulator of Social Housing, Sector Risk Profile 2026October 2026.

This guide explains the data side of STAIRs. It is not legal advice. Take advice on your own policy and exemptions.

Find out how long a request would take you today.

Bring one realistic STAIRs request, such as five years of repairs history for one home. We'll start by understanding how you handle requests today, then come back to show where each record lives, what would need redacting and where the time goes.

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