Ombudsman consults on 2025-26 Business Plan and 5-year strategy for healthier homes, fairer services and trusting relationships
6 March 2025
Ombudsman consults on 2025-26 Business Plan and 5-year strategy for healthier homes, fairer services and trusting relationships
The Housing Ombudsman is seeking views and feedback from residents, landlords, advocacy agencies, representative groups, MPs and councillors on its Business Plan 2025-26 and Corporate Strategy for the next 5 years.
The consultation runs from Thursday 6 March to Monday 31 March and provides an opportunity to shape the work of the Ombudsman to support a thriving housing sector.
The demand for the Ombudsman’s service has more than doubled in the last 2 years and its statutory role has also expanded.
The Ombudsman’s Corporate Strategy proposes 4 objectives:
- provide an excellent, person-centred service
- drive positive local complaints handling cultures
- support better services through insights, data, and intelligence
- extend powers and engage with partners to support closing gaps in redress
These objectives focus on:
- improving the customer journey through its own service by reducing the time it takes to investigate each complaint, with most cases to investigated within 6 months by the end of the strategy period
- fair treatment of resident complaints across England and focus on leadership and governance, particularly the role of the Member Responsible for Complaints, in supporting positive complaint handling cultures
- enabling open source of our casework data and sharing learning from complaints with the sector to improve services and prevent complaints needing Ombudsman intervention – this will build on the Centre for Learning, which now has over 12,000 users
The strategy also sets out its plan to transform systems, processes, and how it will develop its people to deliver an effective and efficient service, now and into the future.
Making impact in these areas is crucial as the Ombudsman is forecast to handle 43,000 this year, with demand increasing following another record year of complaints in 2023-24, including:
- 40,876 enquiries and complaints, of which 8,176 were accepted for investigation – a 60% increase compared to the same period last year
- 5,465 determinations issued – an increase of 107% from the previous year
- a 58% reduction in cases that have been with the service for over 12 months
- 21,740 remedies made to put things right for residents, including £4.9m of financial compensation – a £1.3 million pound increase from the year before
- 85% of cases investigated found failings by a landlord
- resident satisfaction targets were met throughout the year
The Ombudsman is not proposing to increase the fee it charges members in 2025-26.
Read the consultation document PDF
Take part in the online consultation
Richard Blakeway, Housing Ombudsman, said: “We want to see the housing sector thrive during these challenging and changing times, to grasp new opportunities, and to champion healthier homes and fairer services.
“The strategy looks to reimagine our relationship with residents, creating simpler and easier access to housing redress. Doing so in a way that is person-centred, with faster decisions – offering a genuine alternative to legal action. This builds on our work to meet to the unprecedented volumes of casework we have seen.
“And we look to do the same for landlords, where we will continue to provide accountability, redress and transparency. We want to do more to strengthen local resolution, build trust, and move from transactional engagement, based on individual complaints, to strategic support through our Centre for Learning.
“I want residents know their rights and be treated fairly and respectfully, whether their complaint comes to us or not, helping to make relationships between residents and landlords stronger and more trusting.
“Finally, it deepens our relationship with the wider regulatory system, given the unique and independent perspective we offer, by providing insight, open data and alerting it to emerging concerns for enforcement and regulatory bodies, as well as policymakers.”
How to take part
This consultation is split into 2 surveys.
Survey 1: Corporate Strategy 2025-30 consultation
The first is asking for views on the Housing Ombudsman’s Corporate Strategy 2025-30. It introduces 4 strategic objectives and a strategic enabler. Each section sets out the aims and Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) it will use to measure the success of each over the next 5 years.
Tell us your views on the Corporate Strategy 2025-30
Survey 2: Business Plan 2025-26 consultation
The second part is asking for views on the Housing Ombudsman’s Business Plan 2025-26. This gives more detail on planned activities between April 2025 and March 2026 to start to deliver the strategic objectives and enabler in year one.
Tell us your views on the Business Plan 2025-26
You can take part in the consultation online. Complete both surveys to have your say on what we are doing this year, and over the next 5 years.
This consultation will close on Monday 31 March 2025.
Other ways to take part
If you need help responding to this consultation or would like to respond in a different format, please call us on 0300 111 3000. Our opening hours can be found on our website.
You can also email your comments to consultations@housing-ombudsman.org.uk.
Alternatively, you can download a copy of the consultation document PDF or write to us and return to:
Housing Ombudsman Service
PO Box 1484,
Unit D
Preston,
PR2 0ET
The Housing Ombudsman is committed to providing an inclusive service that is accessible to all, find out more by viewing our reasonable adjustment policy.