Addressing Stigma in Social Housing

Social housing stigma was the most important issue raised by tenants in after the Grenfell tragedy – i.e. the feeling they were being treated as second-class citizens. Social housing stigma has barely been addressed since then. To help change that, we've signed up to the Stop Stigma in Social Housing Campaign and want to use their journey planner and resources to work with customers to find out if there are areas where we may be directly or indirectly causing stigma - this could include through the information we provide, how we speak to people, or the actions we take.

Find out what stigma means for other social housing tenants from across the country:

We launched this project in June 2025 and since then we have:

• Worked with colleagues from across the organisation to consider key questions from the Stop Stigma in Social Housing campaign planner
• Sought customer views in face-to-face sessions in November and early December
• Included questions about how you customers may be impacted or experience stigma in the quarterly customer perception survey

We will be sharing all the suggestions and feedback raised with the colleague working group and across teams to agree actions and make changes.

Other housing associations across the country are working through the same journey planner as us. Together we hope the campaign will help social housing be respected, valued and celebrated.

Sharon, a customer at St Leger Homes, has shared her inspiring story about being involved in the Stop the Social Housing Stigma campaign in Doncaster:

If you'd like to share your experiences of stigma, or get more involved in our project across Leeds, Wakefield, Kirklees and North Yorkshire, email us at customer.engagement@lfha.co.uk