Ombudsman appoints ‘Resident Panel’ of 1,500 people to provide insight into social housing
The Housing Ombudsman has appointed its new Resident Panel, comprising 1,500 residents from across the country to share their views on complaints within social housing and how all of the sector, including the Ombudsman itself, can make improvements.
The panel will meet four times a year, with several specialist sub groups throughout the year to give the Ombudsman insight on a range of key topics from service development to Spotlight reports.
Members will also be asked for their views through surveys and questionnaires – including responding to key consultations and the Ombudsman’s annual resident survey.
The panel’s membership has been selected to:
- represent all nine regions of England, with a strong presence from across the country
- represent the various types of member landlord
- strongly align with social housing demographics due to the wide age range, from 16-24 years old to over 65, ethnicity and gender split in the applications.
The appointments to the panel are for three years.
The panel sits alongside landlord engagement activities by the Ombudsman service, including plans to develop a landlord sounding board as part of the forthcoming Corporate Plan period.
Richard Blakeway, Housing Ombudsman, said: “It is fantastic to see such an enthusiastic and broad response from residents to join the Resident Panel.
“The Panel has been instrumental in helping us to improve access and awareness of the service and the establishment of a new Complaint Handling Code.”
He added: “This Panel will have a unique opportunity to be part of all of that and more, with specialist discussion groups tackling some of the big topics we see in housing such as anti-social behaviour and shared ownership.
“By having a Panel as large as this, we hope that the strength of resident voice will be apparent in our development alongside our engagement with landlords.”
Harry Rodd
