Guidance

Regulator of Social Housing and Housing Ombudsman Service: factsheet

A factsheet to explain the role of the Regulator of Social Housing and Housing Ombudsman Service, and how residents can seek support.

• From: Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, Housing Ombudsman, Regulator of Social Housing and Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities
• Published: 29 March 2022
• Last updated: 20 September 2023 — See all updates

Applies to England

How to complain

• If a resident is not satisfied with the services of their landlord, they should initially raise a complaint with their landlord. All landlords have a responsibility to deliver a quality service to their residents and must have complaints processes that are easy to use, fair and designed to put things right.

• If a resident is unhappy with the way their landlord has dealt with their complaint, they can refer their complaint to the Housing Ombudsman. Residents can:

  • Fill out the online form

  • Call 0300 111 3000 during working hours

Summary

• The Housing Ombudsman is focused on helping to resolve individual complaints made by tenants, shared owners and leaseholders about their landlords. They can consider complaints and disputes and may help mediate to find a resolution.

• The Regulator of Social Housing is focused on ensuring that the landlord meets the standards set for social housing providers. This includes that the landlord is well-managed and financially viable, provides tenants with decent, safe and energy efficient accommodation and choice and protection, operates in a transparent manner and that its tenants can hold their landlords to account.

What the Housing Ombudsman Service and Regulator of Social Housing do

• The Housing Ombudsman Service (‘the Ombudsman’) and the Regulator of Social Housing (‘the Regulator’/RSH) each have a role in dealing with social housing landlords. The organisations work closely together but have different roles. These roles are intended to be complementary, ensuring landlords meet expected levels of service delivery to tenants, and organisational levels respectively.

• Both bodies are independent decision makers, required to act fairly, impartially and proportionately. Government Ministers cannot be involved in their decision making. The RSH and the Ombudsman can be asked to report to Parliament.

• Following changes made as part of the Social Housing White Paper, the Ombudsman can now look beyond individual disputes and consider the wider and potentially systemic issues responsible for generating complaints. The Ombudsman seeks to address those issues through a range of interventions including recommendations to individual landlords, sharing learning with all landlords through publications, publishing data and casework and, where appropriate, referring issues to the appropriate regulatory body, usually the Regulator of Social Housing to take further action.

• The Regulator cannot help to resolve individual tenant complaints but can consider whether individual complaints are evidence of systemic failings by the landlord. As noted above, this is supported by its close working with the Ombudsman, who can refer issues to the Regulator when it finds evidence to suggest individual cases are indicative of wider failings. Following the Social Housing (Regulation) Act, from April 2024, the Regulator is introducing a new integrated regulatory approach, with proactive regulation of the consumer standards.

The Housing Ombudsman

• The Housing Ombudsman resolves disputes involving the tenants, shared owners and leaseholders of its member landlords:

  • social landlords (housing associations and local authorities, for whom membership is compulsory);
  • voluntary members (private landlords and letting agents who are committed to good service for their tenants).

• The Ombudsman encourages landlords and residents to resolve complaints locally at the earliest possible opportunity through its Complaint Handling Code and dispute support service.

• Tenants, shared owners and leaseholders do not have to pay to use the Housing Ombudsman Service. The service is independent and impartial. The service is paid for by landlords, and all social landlords must be members.

• The Ombudsman investigates complaints that it receives by requesting evidence from the resident and landlord, and determining what is fair in all the circumstances of the case. When investigating complaints, the Ombudsman will consider whether the landlord failed to comply with relevant legal obligations or codes of practice; failed to apply its own policies and/or procedures; delayed unreasonably in dealing with the matter; behaved unfairly, unreasonably or incompetently; treated the complainant personally in a heavy-handed, unsympathetic or inappropriate manner.

• The Ombudsman may consider the substantive issue giving rise to the complaint as well as the complaint handling itself.

• The Ombudsman can find maladministration or not; decide whether the landlord has already provided reasonable redress; and make orders or recommendations to landlords depending on findings.

  • Orders aim to put things right for the individual complainant and landlords are obliged to comply. Orders can include requiring the landlord to apologise or pay compensation to the complainant or to undertake repairs.

  • Recommendations are made where the Ombudsman considers that wider changes – for example to staff training or record keeping - could improve the landlord’s housing services for the benefit of other residents.

What has been changed by the Social Housing White Paper

• As part of the Social Housing White Paper reform programme, the government:

  • has expanded the capacity of Housing Ombudsman Service, to enable it to reduce its decision times
  • has increased the Ombudsman’s powers to take action against landlords where needed and drive improvements for residents
  • has widened the Ombudsman’s powers to investigate potentially systemic issues arising through complaints
  • has delivered two waves of a communications campaign to raise residents’ awareness of and confidence in complaints processes, including the role of the Ombudsman
  • is making it quicker and easier for residents to directly access the Housing Ombudsman Service, by removing the ‘democratic filter’ through the Building Safety Bill

• Following the changes made as part of the Social Housing White Paper reforms, the Ombudsman:

  • Now publishes the outcomes of all individual decisions, as well as an annual report setting out the number and nature of the complaints made against member landlords
  • Has set out clear expectations of landlords in its Complaints Handling Code, which sets out good practice that will allow landlords to respond to complaints effectively and fairly, and to learn from complaints to improve their services. The Ombudsman can also now issue Complaints Handling Failure Orders where it finds, through its casework or wider investigations, that landlords are not complying with the Code.
  • Is doing more to help both individuals and organisations to learn from its work by publishing reports on its casework which make recommendations about good practice, and running webinars and other training events.
  • Conducting further investigations to establish whether failure in individual cases is indicative of ‘systemic’ or wider failure and identify where improvements to services are needed. Recent reports have covered complaints relating to heating, hot water and energy, cladding, and issues of damp and mould. If there is evidence of systemic failure by an individual landlord to meet regulatory standards, the Ombudsman may refer the issue to the appropriate regulatory body, usually the Regulator of Social Housing.

• The Social Housing White Paper committed to keep the Housing Ombudsman’s powers, and compliance with them, under review, and to consider ways to strengthen them.

• The government is taking steps to remove the “democratic filter” through the Building Safety Bill. Once the ‘democratic filter’ has been removed (following Royal Assent of the Building Safety Bill), social housing residents with unresolved complaints will be able to access the Housing Ombudsman directly without having to contact a designated person or wait eight weeks. This reflects the position in most other sectors, where consumers can access an Ombudsman or redress scheme directly.

The Regulator of Social Housing

• The Regulator of Social Housing is an independent body, responsible for setting standards that all registered providers of social housing must meet and holding landlords to account for compliance with these standards.

The Regulator’s objectives are set out in the Housing and Regeneration Act 2008 (as amended). To meet its objectives, the Regulator sets a series of outcome focused standards which registered providers must meet and provide assurance that they are doing so.

The Regulator considers whether landlords are meeting the standards at an organisational, or systemic, level. This means looking at the landlord’s performance in the round and making sure they have the appropriate systems and processes in place to meet the standards.

The Regulator adopts a co-regulatory approach. This means that Board members (of housing associations and other private registered providers) and councillors (of local authorities) are responsible for ensuring that their landlord is meeting the regulatory standards.

The Regulator’s standards cover both economic issues (such as governance and financial viability) and consumer issues (such as ensuring homes are decent and safe, that complaints are managed effectively and that tenants are listened to and provided with opportunities to engage).

• The Social Housing White Paper set out our plans to rebalance consumer and economic regulation, introducing proactive regulation of the consumer standards and removing the ‘serious detriment’ test.

• From April 2024, the Regulator is introducing a new integrated regulatory approach with proactive regulation of the consumer standards. Tools to gain assurance will include requirements for all landlords to collate and publish Tenant Satisfaction Measures, as well as a programme of regular inspections of the largest landlords which will cover key areas of risk.

• The Regulator does not have a role in resolving individual tenant’s complaints with their landlords and cannot mediate in disputes between landlords and residents – this is the role of the Ombudsman.

• The Ombudsman may refer complaints to the Regulator where it suspects evidence of systemic failure. The Regulator will consider all the information received through complaints and referrals to determine where there has been a wider failing within the landlord’s systems or processes that means the landlord has failed to meet the Regulator’s standards.

How do the Ombudsman and Regulator work together?

• If a complaint or referral comes in to one organisation, where it would sit better with the other organisation, they will signpost to the other body.

• The Ombudsman may also formally refer a matter to the Regulator where their investigation into an individual case, or cases, indicates that there may be a wider systemic failing and there may be evidence of a breach of the regulator’s standards. The Ombudsman and Regulator will work together to agree and set out the criteria and process for referrals and signposting in both directions.

The two organisations have agreed a Memorandum of Understanding which sets out the functions of each organisation and the arrangements for cooperation and communication between the two bodies. This was last updated in October 2022.

• The Social Housing (Regulation) Act 2023 includes measures to formalise and strengthen the relationship between RSH and the Ombudsman, including putting the Memorandum of Understanding on a statutory footing.

Published 29 March 2022
Last updated 20 September 2023 + show all updates

1. 20 September 2023

   Page updated to reflect new provisions in the Social Housing (Regulation) Act.

2. 29 March 2022

   First published.