We recommend that the Government legislate through the Social Housing (Regulation) Bill to place a legal requirement on social housing providers to self-assess against the Housing Ombudsman’s complaint handling code and to report to the ombudsman when they have done so. To ensure that providers are self-assessing against the code, we recommend that either: (Paragraph 114) • the Government give the ombudsman the power and duty to monitor whether providers are self-assessing against the complai...

We recommend that the Government legislate through the Social Housing (Regulation) Bill to place a legal requirement on social housing providers to self-assess against the Housing Ombudsman’s complaint handling code and to report to the ombudsman when they have done so. To ensure that providers are self-assessing against the code, we recommend that either: (Paragraph 114) • the Government give the ombudsman the power and duty to monitor whether providers are self-assessing against the complaint handling code and whether their complaint handling processes are broadly in line with it; or • the regulator, as part of its review of the consumer st Type: recommendation | Number: 29 | Response status: not_addressed Government response: We believe the Complaint Handling Code has had a significant and positive impact on social landlords’ approach to complaint handling. There has been a high level of engagement with the Code with more than 4,000 downloads of the self-assessment form and 796 at