Ombudsman gains powers to issue “wider orders” under Social Housing Regulation Act
The Housing Ombudsman has gained new powers under the Social Housing Regulation Act, allowing it not only to address individual complaints from a landlord, but also extend “fairness and protection” to wider residents.
Following approval by the Secretary of State of a revised Scheme, the Ombudsman is now able to order a landlord to evaluate a particular policy or practice to prevent service failure being repeated.
Formerly, these types of orders would have only been recommendations, with no legal duty on landlords to comply.
The expanded authority enables the Ombudsman to require landlords to go beyond the scope of individual complaints and seek to address any wider issues.
“This will also help the Ombudsman monitor compliance with the orders as it can be more prescriptive in what it wants to see in certain policy reviews and who it might want involved in that”, said the watchdog.
It added: “Residents have frequently told the Ombudsman that service improvements do not follow a determination, and this new power will look at bridging that gap.”
The Ombudsman has published updated remedies guidance outlining the changes.
Richard Blakeway, Housing Ombudsman, said: “These changes will help us to extend fairness to residents who may be experience poor service without the landlord taking action on the root causes.
“This will also help landlords to learn from complaints and prompt changes in landlord behaviour. By extending the Ombudsman’s reach beyond individual complaints, more residents will benefit from the Ombudsman’s oversight and intervention, ultimately enhancing the quality of social housing.
“These powers give also us extra tools to act when we see repeated service failure.”
Last month, the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman (LGSCO) and the Housing Ombudsman launched consultations on a joint Complaint Handling Code, marking the first time that a code has been introduced for all local government functions.
Lottie Winson
