Campaign group launches toolkit to combat social housing stigma

A campaign group has launched a tool designed to help social landlords and other organisations combat the stigma associated with living in social housing.

The Stop Social Housing Stigma (SSHS) campaign, which is supported by 163 organisations including large landlords and the Chartered Institute of Housing, has produced a ‘tackling stigma journey planner’.

The planner is an online toolkit which sets out six commitments, or ‘tickets’, which involve a landlord asking itself a series of questions about what it is doing to combat stigma.

The questions are related to topics such as building trust between tenants and landlord, enabling tenants to play roles in decision-making, tackling stigma in repairs and service delivery, addressing stigmatising behaviours, addressing wider societal social housing stigma and celebrating the work done by tenants.

The toolkit has been produced with the support of Chartered Institute of Planning (CIH), TPAS, YD Consultants, Durham and Sheffield Hallam Universities and housing providers. SSHS said the tackling stigma journey planner complements various elements of the Regulator of Soical Housing’s Consumer Standards. 

The toolkit was launched at a parliamentary reception on Monday night.

A privilege to join with housing colleagues & residents in attending the parliamentary launch of the excellent *Stop Social Housing Stigma* journey planner and case studies this evening. @cihhousing.bsky.social is proud to support. 👀 Check them out at stopsocialhousingstigma.org/journeyplann…

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— Rachael Williamson (@rachaelwhsg.bsky.social) May 19, 2025 at 8:41 PM

Lilian Emokpea, a resident of Greatwell Homes, based in Wellingborough, said: “The Stop Social Housing Stigma campaign is a real positive move.

Its inclusion really opens doors to make anyone from all backgrounds feel heard and valued, giving a better understanding to the organisation about the real concerns and obstacles faced by people in social housing, as well as breaking the narrative and stigma of social housing. It’s a project and organisation I’m proud to be involved with.”

>>See also: To tackle social housing stigma we must root out unconscious bias in our own organisations