We’ve recently updated the guidance for the Sustainability Reporting Standard for Social Housing (SRS), providing clearer direction on how to report against the existing criteria. While the criteria themselves remain unchanged, this new guidance aims to remove ambiguity, improve consistency, and support more robust ESG reporting across the sector.
Here’s why we’ve done it, how we approached the update, and what comes next.
1. Why we did it
The core motivation behind updating the guidance was to improve clarity. Since launching the Standard, we’ve received valuable feedback—often directly from adopters—highlighting areas of uncertainty around how to interpret and report against specific criteria. We’ve listened to these questions, and the new guidance reflects what we’ve learned.
By eliminating ambiguity, we hope to make reporting expectations much clearer, which in turn will lead to more consistent and comparable responses. This benefits not only the reporting organisations but also the investors, stakeholders, and partners who rely on the data to make informed decisions.
We also recognised the need to make more of the criteria assurable. While third-party assurance isn’t a requirement—and is rarely expected in SRS reports—we know that scrutiny of ESG reporting is increasing. By clarifying what is expected, we’re ensuring that the SRS remains robust, credible, and aligned with broader market expectations. We want it to be a Standard that can stand up to scrutiny, should adopters choose to seek external assurance.
Importantly, while the guidance has changed, the criteria themselves have not. The reporting expectations remain fundamentally the same, and this is still version 2.0 of the SRS. However, the historical guidance has now been removed and is only available in a separate, standalone document to ensure there’s no confusion.
2. How we did it
This updated guidance is the result of ongoing collaboration. In addition to regular feedback from adopters, we’ve worked closely with the ESG Working Group—a collective of ESG and sustainability leads from around 20 large housing associations—who provided practical insights into what works and where more clarity was needed.
We also engaged with several sector stakeholders to ensure the updated guidance aligns with broader best practices in sustainability reporting. These include the Housing Provider Biodiversity Lead Network, the Future Homes Hub, and SHIFT, among others. Their input has helped ensure that the SRS guidance is consistent with emerging priorities such as biodiversity, energy efficiency, and environmental resilience.
3. What next?
This updated guidance is intended to support reports due by October 2025. We encourage all adopters to familiarise themselves with the changes and apply them in their upcoming reporting cycles.
Looking ahead, Sustainability for Housing (SfH) plans to review the criteria again in late 2025. This will involve consultation with the Adopter community, with the aim of publishing version 2.1 in spring 2026. That review is expected to result in more incremental changes, building on the clarity and consistency achieved in this latest update.
As always, we welcome your feedback and thank you for your continued commitment to improving sustainability across the social housing sector.
Click here to view the guidance document.
