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Housing Ombudsman proposes faster decisions and tougher powers in radical overhaul
The Housing Ombudsman is proposing the introduction of a new “severe maladministration” finding, higher fees for landlords and the halving of complaint times, as part of a radical overhaul at the watchdog.
Richard Blakeway, the ombudsman, has proposed to set the agency’s fee at £2.16 per home for the next two financial years, the maximum proposed in last year’s consultation.
He said that the fee had been frozen since 2017/18, despite a 35% increase in workload, and that the service now lacks sufficient reserves to continue at this level.
Mr Blakeway, who was previously deputy mayor for housing at the Greater London Authority, was appointed head of the agency in July. He started the role last month.
His business plan, which is out for consultation, called for an effective halving of average complaint handling times to three to four months by 2021/22, with an intermediate stage of four to five months in 2020/21.
The agency said landlords’ delays endangered its ability to achieve this, with initial requests for evidence not answered in approximately 25% of cases.
To counter this, Mr Blakeway has suggested there be a deadline of 15 working days for providing evidence, with the threat of a finding of ‘complaint handling failure’ if landlords fail to meet it.
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The Housing Ombudsman would also take powers to investigate whether such shortcomings were indicative of systemic failings, with any found being referred to the Regulator of Social Housing.
A ‘severe maladministration’ category would also be used to emphasise a range of failings, when something worse than ‘service failure’ or ‘maladministration’ had happened.
Landlords would also be required to maintain a complaints procedure in accordance with agency best practice, including specifying how landlords should inform residents of their right to complain to the ombudsman without having completed the landlord’s complaints procedure.
A new power would prevent complaints from becoming ‘lost’ when referred back to landlords by requiring them to report results to the ombudsman.
To speed up the handling of complaints, ombudsman staff would ‘triage’ cases to determine their complexity and encourage landlords to resolve more complaints under their own procedures or to use mediation when both parties agree.
Mr Blakeway said of the consultations on his Business Plan 2020-21 and Proposed Changes to the Housing Ombudsman Scheme: “Together, these documents mark an important stage in developing our service to provide faster, effective redress for the five million households that can benefit from our service.”
