Housing Ombudsman sets targets to tackle social housing complaints

The Housing Ombudsman has set out its plans to tackle a rise in complaint cases involving social housing landlords.

Over the last five years, the Ombudsman has seen more than a 500% increase in cases, reaching more than 13,000 last year.

The Housing Ombudsman has launched a consultation on its business plan for the year ahead and also warns that its membership fee will rise.

Help social housing landlords resolve complaints

The Housing Ombudsman’s plan for 2026-27 sets out targets to determine 90% of high-risk cases within four months, 50% of all cases within six months, and no case to be older than 16 months by the end of the year.

The Ombudsman also plans to implement a three-year caseload reduction strategy, focused on faster and more appropriate case handling and on improving social housing landlords’ complaint management to prevent issues from escalating to the Ombudsman.

Richard Blakeway, Housing Ombudsman, said: “We recognise the enormous effort most social housing landlords have made to improve their approach to complaints over the last six years.

“Adopting the Complaint Handling Code, using complaints as an early indicator of wider issues, investing in their teams, strengthening governance, this is real and meaningful progress. Our Business Plan is designed to build on it.

“Our goal is to help social housing landlords resolve more complaints within their own processes. Earlier resolution is better for residents, and it builds stronger, more trusting relationships between landlords and the people they serve.”

The news comes after social housing landlords are being urged to apologise for mistakes after a report revealed that residents suffered due to failures.

Fee increase

Subject to the approval of the consultation and Housing Secretary, the 2026-27 membership fee for the Housing Ombudsman will rise from £8.03 to £10.56 per home from April.

Mr Blakeway says the fee increase is not something they have taken lightly.

He explains: “We held our rate for two years despite overwhelming demand and have driven down our cost per case significantly. We determined more than 980 cases last month, but we need to do more to ensure that complaints are responded to in a timely manner.

“The fee funds a wide range of support for members to prevent complaints escalating to us. This includes our Centre for Learning, which helps with complaint handling and tackling other key issues we see in our casework, to our independent investigation work, which shares learning and provides recommendations for landlords to improve.

“Our ambition is to reduce fees within this corporate plan period. But right now, our focus is on responding to demand, improving our efficiency, and supporting social housing landlords to do right by their residents.”