First Report - The Regulation of Social Housing
Select Committee
Housing, Communities and Local Government Committee
HC 18
20 July 2022
Recommendations
1 results
36
Accepted in Part
Para 133
We encourage all social housing providers and the Housing Ombudsman to adopt a co-ordinated strategy...
Recommendation
We encourage all social housing providers and the Housing Ombudsman to adopt a co-ordinated strategy to increase awareness among tenants of the ombudsman. As part of that, providers should routinely send letters and leaflets specifically about how they can complain …
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Government Response Summary
The government agrees with the Committee that improved awareness of the complaints procedure is essential, and will work with the Regulator to support the consumer standards placing an obligation on social landlords to promote the Ombudsman; it encourages landlords to review the revised jurisdiction guidance published in October 2021 and would welcome the protocol being strengthened to reinforce this approach.
Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government
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Conclusions (1) Observations and findings — click to expand
32
Conclusion
Accepted in Part
Para 124
The Housing Ombudsman is supposed to award compensation to cover financial loss and avoidable inconvenience, distress and detriment. We do not think, however, that the levels of compensation being awarded come anywhere close to reflecting any of these things. We also think financial loss should explicitly include loss of earnings …
Government Response Summary
The government acknowledges the importance of both financial and non-financial remedies for tenants, supporting transparency in compensation decisions and the consideration of loss of earnings for missed appointments. It will consider explaining how its assessment of compensation can be further explained in investigation reports. However, they do not agree with increasing the compensation limit.