STAIRs - Social Tenant Access to Information Requirements

With STAIRs, you can now access important information about your landlord and the services you rely on. 

What is STAIRs?

In 2026 the government introduced a regulatory standard called the Social Tenants Access to Information Requirements, known as STAIRs. 

STAIRs makes it easier for social tenants to access key information about their home, landlord, and landlord services. 

It provides more transparency for residents of privately registered providers (PRPs), including GCH. STAIRs aims to strengthen tenants ability to understand how we operate and hold us to account.

The government requires that all housing providers introduce a STAIRs publication scheme before October 2026.  

This webpage links to the relevant information across our website and will be kept up to date with accurate information.

Read the Government STAIRs Guidance
Governance and decision making

This section contains information about how we are run and how key decisions are made. 
 About us 

  • Find out more  about us; who we are and what we do 
  • Our strategy and vision includes our  Strategic Plan, which outlines our aims and objectives from 2025 to 2030. On this page you will also find the strategies which underpin our Strategic Plan. These include: 
  • Homes and Communities Strategy 
  • Customer Strategy 
  • New Homes Delivery Strategy 
  • People & Culture Strategy 
  • Digital Strategy 
  • Data Strategy 
  • Value for Money Strategy 
  • Risk Management and Assurance Strategy 

Senior staff names and roles 

Organisational structure and governance arrangements 

  • Our Board sets the overall strategy for us and makes sure our Executive Team, responsible for the day-to-day management of GCH, is working effectively.  
  • We publish summaries of what our Board review, discuss and decisions they make after each meeting on our Board page 
  • We also have a range of Committees who feed into our main Board. 

Prioritisation of complaints 

  • Our complaints policy explains our complaints process and how we ensure we’re compliant with the Housing Ombudsman’s Complaint Handling Code.

Information on tenant consultations 

  • We work with residents to decide what resident involvement looks like at GCH. 
  • The Scrutiny Group is a team of GCH Customers who act as a critical friend to GCH to influence the direction and services of the organisation. 
  • We also publish stories in our online news and Connect, our resident’s magazine. 

This section details how the money that we generate is used to manage and improve our homes and services.

  • We publish details about our spending, grants and use of service charge revenue in our financial statements. 
  • Our procurement policy details how we collaborate with suppliers to create safe, warm, secure and affordable homes for our residents 
  • It’s essential for us to conduct procurement activities in an open, transparent, and ethical way. We must comply with all the rules and procedures established by the Procurement Act. You can see all of our consultations here. 

This section explains how we maintain, repair and invest in our homes. 

Plans and objectives 

  • Our Strategic Plan outlines our aims and objectives from 2026 to 2030
  • Our Who We Are page gives an overview of our housing stock profile and our Annual Report shows how our homes are spread across Gloucestershire
  • Our Supported Housing Service at GCH is made up of 113 properties for use by customers that are experiencing homelessness or are imminently threatened with homelessness. 
  • We have 7 independent living schemes based in Gloucester, which provide accommodation for people over 55, who wish to stay independent in their homes. 
  • The Decent Homes Standard  sets compliant standards for the conditions of social homes. 
  • We’re making positive changes now for people and the planet, as outlined in our Sustainability report 
  • We’re committed to building new homes locally and, with a focus on sustainability, we’re continuing work on our new developments, as well as investing in existing homes 
  • We publish information about our PropertyCare performance, including repairs satisfaction and fixed first time on our performance page.  
  • Maintaining Areas Around Your Home – GCH outlines how we plan look after our neighbourhoods and communal areas

This section outlines our performance in delivering services to residents and compliance with regulatory standards. 

Regulatory engagement 

  • We are Regulated by the Regulator of Social Housing. Each year they asses our compliance with their standards and you can view our latest regulatory judgment (January 2026). 
  • The RSH will complete a more in-depth inspection every four years. We currently have G1 (governance) and V2 (financial) ratings. 
  • The Housing Ombudsman publish decisions on any cases investigated on their website’s Decision Archive. To view their decisions about us, enter ‘Gloucester City Homes’ in the landlord name field and select ‘Apply Filter

Performance reviews & evaluation reports

Tenant Satisfaction Measures 

Find out more about TSMs. 

Media releases 

Complaint metrics 

    • Our Annual Complaints Report covers our compliance with the Housing Ombudsman Complaint Handling Code, and our complaints handling performance. 
    • We also carry out a self-assessment against the Housing Ombudsman’s Complaint Handling Code. 
    • You can also view our Landlord Performance report on the Housing Ombudsman’s website.

You can also view our Landlord Performance report on the Housing Ombudsman’s website. 

Compensation and redress 

  • The Landlord Performance report on the Housing Ombudsman’s website details how much compensation we paid as ordered by the Ombudsman. 

Information request data 

    • This data is not currently available. It will be published once residents are able to submit information requests from April 2027. 

Maintenance work 

  • Our performance in delivering repairs and maintenance services is also highlighted in our Annual Report.

Number of evictions 

  • This data is not currently available. 

This section provides information about the services we deliver to tenants and the advice and guidance we make available. 

This section provides information on the registers we’re required to keep for the management of our housing services.

Information held in registers required by law

  • We’ve a legal responsibility to carry out certain important safety checks to ensure the home or building you live in remains safe 
  • We carry out gas safety inspections at your home every year to check that any gas heating and hot water appliances, fittings and flues owned by us are safe 
  • We inspect and test your electrical installations  and any communal appliances, every five years.  
  • Asbestos needs to be treated with care as it can cause serious disease. We give you more information about what to do if you suspect Asbestos is in your home 
  • Our Water Safety Policy ensures we manage our water systems to help reduce the risk from legionella and other bacteria 
  • We explain how we comply with all the Government guidance and regulations around fire and building safety to ensure all our buildings meet the required standards 
  • We currently only manage one high-rise building, Clapham Court. You’ll find further information about our high-rise buildings on the government’s website 

Other List and Registers Relating to the Management of Social Housing 

Further Information

How to contact us 

We’re committed to meeting our residents’ needs and our own regulatory obligations. 

If you require support in accessing, navigating, or understanding this publication scheme, or if you need information that is not listed in this publication scheme, please contact  DPO@gch.co.uk 

If you’re not satisfied with the information provided 

If you think we haven’t published information that we hold and that should be included in our STAIRs Publication Scheme, you can ask us to review this. 

We’ll review your complaint within 30 calendar days.  In certain circumstances, additional time may be added. 
If you’re unhappy with our review outcome, you can then escalate this directly to the Housing Ombudsman.  

Information requests 

From April 2027, 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. 

We are currently developing our process for responding to STAIRs requests. We will provide further information on how you can make a request from April 2027 in due course.