John Healey – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government
The below Parliamentary question was asked by John Healey on 2016-04-08.
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what average time the Housing Ombudsman has taken to complete a case in each year since 2009-10.
Brandon Lewis
The Housing Ombudsman is an independent body whose objective it is to resolve disputes involving tenants and leaseholders of social landlords and their voluntary members. The average times taken to complete a case, which are within the Housing Ombudsman’s formal remit are provided below.
2009-10: 23 weeks
2010-11: 15 weeks
2011-12: 17 weeks
2012-13: 23 weeks
2013-14: Not available
2014-15: Not available
2015-16: 41 weeks
The levels of complaints and enquiries have increased year on year since 2006 and there was a 64% increase between 2012-13 and 2014-15, which is partly due to an extension of The Housing Ombudsman’s remit to cover local housing authorities.
At a DCLG Select Committee hearing, in January 2016, the new Housing Ombudsman made a commitment to reduce the backlog of older cases within their formal remit dating back from previous years. Very substantial progress has been made and by 31 March there were only 9 cases outstanding over 12 months old.
