Tackling Social Housing Stigma Together
Thursday 29th of May 2025
Do tenants sometimes feel like they are seen as second-class citizens just because they live in Council or Housing Association homes?
Many tenants say they do. The most important issue raised by tenants in the post Grenfell Ministerial Tenants Roadshows, recent research by the G15 group of housing associations has confirmed that half of social housing tenants feel like they are stigmatised - treated differently - because they live in social housing. And half feel that things their landlord does makes them feel stigmatised.
This needs to change. Everyone, from tenants to Chief Executives and Directors of Housing, to the Regulator, to the Housing Ombudsman, to MPs, to the Prime Minister even, have said that the culture of social housing needs to change.
Stop Social Housing Stigma’s (SSHS) Tackling Stigma Journey Planner may be a good place to start. Listen to the tenants talking to camera about stigma in the video produced with the Journey Planner, also available on the website. Developed with TPAS, alongside the University of Durham, Sheffield Hallam University, the Chartered Institute of Housing, and YDC, the Journey Planner has been piloted with 11 Pioneer Traveller landlords and their tenants (6 local authorities and 5 housing associations) leading to many practical changes.
Launched in Parliament on 19th May, the Journey Planner outlines a series of questions that tenants and landlords can consider together to plan how to tackle stigma. The questions are challenging, covering everything from trust and culture; Tenants Leading Change; tackling stigma in service delivery; getting first class staff; stigma and governance; and how we celebrate social housing. One housing association Chief Executive commented “I’ve been reading it with interest and thinking about how we can put it into practice. Some of it made me squirm, which is probably a good indication of where we need to start”.
SSHS want to hear from you about how tenants and landlords are working together to tackle stigma.
Lynne Brosnan, SSHS’s Tenant Chair, said “we hope tenants will use the Journey Planner to hold their landlords to account. We hope that it will help tenants carry out scrutiny exercises into how their landlords are tackling stigma. We hope that landlords will work with their tenants to use it to really get to grips with culture. And if anyone wants help using the Journey Planner, please get in touch with us”.
Find out more about the work of Stop Social Housing Stigma here
