The Housing Ombudsman Service has launched a consultation
seeking views on a new three-year corporate plan, 2019-22 and
supporting plan for the first year 2019-20.
Together with representatives from the Tenant Participatory
Advisory Service (TPAS), the Local Government Association(LGA), the
National Housing Federation (NHF), the National Federation of ALMOs
(NFA) and the G320 Group of housing associations, ARCH Chief
Executive John Bibby attended a roundtable discussion with the
Housing Ombudsman on 20 November to discuss the Plans.
The plans have been developed on the themes of increased
accessibility, hearing the resident voice, fast and effective
redress and greater transparency that emerged from the social
housing green paper and the consultation on consumer redress in the
housing market.
Under the plans, the Housing Ombudsman intends to focus on four
new strategic objectives:
- Delivering a fair and impartial service, resolving disputes at
the earliest opportunity
- Promoting positive change in the sector
- Providing a service that is professional, accessible and simple
to use
- Ensuring the service is open and transparent
Under the plans there will be an increased focus on supporting
local resolution, more activities to improve complaint handling
across the sector, continuing to drive down investigation case
times, together with a more transparent and accessible service.
The consultation seeks views on the priorities and activities
identified under each strategic objective, plus increases to
subscription rates over the three years to fund the ambitions set
out in the plan and keep pace with external changes likely to
emerge as a result of the Green Paper proposals. The Housing
Ombudsman's preferred option for future fees would see subscription
rates for landlords rise over the period of the plan from £1.25 to
£1.97 per unit.
Copies of the plan and the consultation document, together
with the Housing Ombudsman's response to the Social Housing
Green Paper are available to download from the Housing
Ombudsman Service website.
The consultation is open until Monday 10 December 2018.
ARCH members are encouraged to respond to the consultation and
to copy their responses to ARCH Policy Adviser Matthew Warburton Matthew.warburton@arch-housing.org.uk