STAIRs - FAQs

Find out the answer to your question about STAIRs

Social Tenants Access to Information Requirements (STAIRs) FAQs

We understand that you'll have questions about what STAIRs is and how you can find out more about we run your home. Find the answer below, and how to contact us if you'd like more support.

How to contact us

We want you to be happy in your home, and are committed to meeting your needs as well as our own regulatory obligations.

If you need support with the information on this page, require it in alternative formats or require additional information please contact hello@populoliving.co.uk and use the word STAIRs in your subject line. You can also call us on 020 7112 8901 or write to us at Populo Living, 3rd Floor Discover House, 379-381 High Street, Stratford E15 4QZ.

Cost of information

Most information is available free of charge, but we may charge reasonable costs for printing or postage where applicable.

If you're unhappy with our STAIRs information

STAIRs is a new piece of legislation and we believe we’ve supplied the important information tenants might need to access. If you think there is something we should be including in our STAIRs Publication Scheme, let us know via hello@populoliving.co.uk with the word STAIRs in the subject line.

Alternatively you can raise a complaint and we’ll try to review this within 30 calendar days, and if you’re still unhappy you can elevate your complaint via our Complaints Policy.

Information requests

The second part of STAIRs comes into effect from April 2027, when you will have a legal right to ask us for information about how we manage your home and the services we provide. This new right is designed to make our services more transparent and easier to understand, and we can support you with this process with reasonable assistance.

Populo Homes will share information about how to make a request prior to this date.

What’s not included in a request

We will try and publish as much information as possible under STAIRs, but not all information is publishable. This includes:

Personal data that is covered under UK GDPR and Data Protection Act 2018 (DPA)
Confidential or commercially sensitive information or third party information.
Local authority matters such as allocations, homelessness assessments, planning matters or council tax.
A breach of statutory restrictions such as a conflict with any statutory provision, eg laws relating to data protection or commercial confidentiality.
Information that requires the creation of new records as we can only share what already exists.
Draft or archive versions of documents
Redactions – the STAIRS legislation allows redactions, eg for commercially sensitive material. This can mean some documents have so much redacted that they are no longer of value, in which case we can apply a reasonableness test to this process.

Publication schedule

We will review this scheme regularly to ensure information is up to date and accurate. We will act on tenant feedback to improve our STAIRs process and documentation where possible.