1. Housing Complaints
Reform
Rafael Runco
Deputy Housing Ombudsman

2. What do we have now
Housing & Regeneration Act 2008 – Tenant Services Authority, Homes & Communities Agency, National Tenant Voice...PLUS Audit Commission, Leasehold Valuation Tribunals, etc, Housing Ombudsman Service + Local Government Ombudsman
1st April 2010 > all “social” housing within single regulatory framework
Regulatory Standards – complaints central to co-regulation: Standard One and Local Offers
Protocols – TSAHOSLGO
No overlap between Ombudsman schemes
HOS’s support programme for landlords and tenants: joint initiatives with CIH, NHF, HouseMark, TAROE, TPAS, InSTEP, QHS, CCH, and others.

3. Coalition Government ?

4. USE INTERNAL COMPLAINTS PROCEDURE
REPORT PROBLEM
USE INTERNAL COMPLAINTS PROCEDURE
CONTACT OMBUDSMAN
LGO or HOS
NOW

5. USE INTERNAL COMPLAINTS PROCEDURE
REPORT PROBLEM
USE INTERNAL COMPLAINTS PROCEDURE
DEMOCRATIC FILTER
LOCALISM BILL
APR 2013
REFERRAL TO
SINGLE OMBUDSMAN

6. Localism: a cultural shift in complaint-handling:
Internal Complaints Procedures remain first-port-of-call – emphasis on improving case handling: continuing role of Ombudsman in support of effective dispute resolution, based on key principles
“Democratic Filter” tackling performance issues and complaints from the bottom up. Involvement of politicians and tenant panels but no clarity of role yet > Ombudsman referrals (veto)
Single Ombudsman for domain, with enhanced power to enforce decisions in Court and dealing with wider range of problems
Complaint management and complainant satisfaction will be more critical as key performance indicators
No central focus for statistics, examples, or analysis: increasing role of learning through benchmarking
Dispute Resolution Principles project and guidance

7. Don’t panic!
We have almost two years to develop the new system.

8. Email support@housing-ombudsman.org.uk
Website housing-ombudsman.org.uk