Social Tenants Access to Information Requirements (STAIRs)
STAIRs is a new requirement introduced by the Regulator of Social Housing under the Transparency, Influence and Accountability standard to give you access to information we hold about how we perform as a landlord and how we manage your home.
Key dates
1st October 2026 - Publication scheme goes live
1st April 2027 - Tenants can make a STAIRs request
More about STAIRs
The regulatory standard ensures transparency for tenants and easier access to important information about your home and landlord services.
Read the Government policy statement here
Who can make requests?
You the tenant or you may nominate a designated representative to communicate with us on your behalf. For a request to be valid it must be made in writing. This can be via email or letter to:
Email: stairs@kenistonha.co.uk
Address: Keniston Housing Association, 13 Artington Close, Orpington, BR6 7UL
If you have any queries about making a request, you can call us on 01689 889700.
Responding to information requests
We will respond to an information request promptly, and no later than 30 calendar days from receipt. Further time is permissible in exceptional circumstances:
- to consider whether it is reasonable to withhold the requested information; and/or
- to arrange access to relevant information held by a contractor or by another body on our behalf.
We will notify you if your request is refused or will be delayed ensuring the reason is provided, including details of when you can expect to receive a response.
We may redact documents where appropriate.
We will take reasonable steps to ensure information is disclosed in a format that is accessible to applicants.
Where an information request is unclear, we will reasonable efforts to assist applicants to make a clear and valid request.
Publication scheme
We are required to introduce a STAIRs Publication Scheme bringing important information about our housing services together in one place.
We will review the information published to ensure it remains accurate and up to date. We will add new information here as and when required or deemed useful.
Governance and decision making
| Who we are | We are a housing association providing low cost rented accommodation to people who find it difficult to compete in the private rented sector. We charge rents at below market rates. Most people who live in our properties have been referred to us through choice based lettings schemes run by local councils. | About us |
| Senior staff | Jonathan Card – Chief Executive Officer
Recruiting to position – Finance & Resources Director Sue McDonnell – Operations Director Tony Coward – Property Services Director |
Our staff |
| Our Governance | We are overseen by our Board and currently have eight members who give their time to the Association. | Our Board Members |
| Complaints | Our Complaints page explains how to complain and has information on the Housing Ombudsman Complaint Handling Code.
Our Board Member responsible for Complaints also provides a summary in our Annual Reports. |
Make a complaint |
| Policies | A list of our company policies. | Policies |
| Resident Involvement | Residents are engaged in various ways via meetings, estate walkabouts, surveys, panels and groups. Our Impact Statements and Annual Reports provide annual summaries of all involvement.
We also publish a newsletter three times a year. |
Get involved |
Spending
| Expenditure | We publish our Annual Reports and Financial Statements which summarise the details of our spending and value for money. | Financial Statements |
| Grants
Use of service charge revenue |
We provide annual service charge statements to all tenants and interim ones can requested. | Service Charges |
Housing Stock Management
| Plans | We publish our Strategic Plan online as and when it is reviewed.
We publish our annual Stock Reinvestment Programmes online. We have development plans in progress aiming to help with the housing crisis by providing affordable new homes. Our Estate Action Plans detail what we are proactively doing at each scheme. |
Strategic Plans |
| Maintenance | Details of our planned maintenance and cyclical decorations are summarised in our Annual Reports. | Annual Reports |
| Net zero | Details of our work towards Net zero can be requested. | |
| Stock transfers | N/A as none carried out. |
Performance
| Inspections outcomes, ratings, performance reviews, evaluation reports | N/A as none carried out. | |
| Tenant Satisfaction Measures | We conduct a survey of all tenants every two years.
We also carry out estate specific surveys relating to service charge services. |
Satisfaction Surveys |
| Complaint metrics, health and safety performance and assessments, maintenance work, number of evictions. | We publish stats in our Annual Reports. | Annual Reports |
| Media releases | Any releases will be published online. | Press releases |
| Information request data, we will include in Annual Report (SARs, STAIRs) | We will include these in future Annual Reports. | Annual Reports |
Housing Services
| Services, advice, and guidance for tenants. | We have a wide range of information leaflets that offer guidance and advice for tenants.
We have lots of other information on our website to help you in your home. All tenants can register for ‘My Tenancy’ to access and manage their account. |
Information leaflets |
List and registers
| Information held in registers required by law and other lists and registers relating to the management of social housing. | We hold registers recording the following:
Gas Safety Inspections Electrical Safety Checks Asbestos in homes Damp and mould reports Legionella controls Fire risk assessments Building Safety High-rise building safety We publish information leaflets and policies relating to the above. |
More information can be provided upon request. |
Social Housing Management
| Policies and strategies relating to the management of social housing. | We publish policies on our website.
Our Strategic Plans can also be viewed online. |
Policies |
What if I am not satisfied with the information provided?
If you are unhappy with what is published or missing under our STAIRs Publication Scheme, you can ask us to review this. You must follow step 1 before you can escalate to the ombudsman.
- It is generally recommended to request this review within three months of noticing the information is missing.
- A senior manager not involved in the original scheme setup must review the complaint and provide a written outcome within 30 calendar days.
- Lodge a formal complaint using the Housing Ombudsman STAIRs Complaint Form or call 0300 111 3000.
- The Housing Ombudsman will investigate whether the landlord followed STAIRs regulatory rules, acted reasonably, and explained their decisions clearly. If the landlord is found to be non-compliant, the Ombudsman can order them to apologise or release the missing data.