Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, if he will make an assessment of the implications for his policies of solicitors in the Liverpool City Region advising social housing tenants to pursue legal action against landlords rather than escalating issues through the usual channels.

Ensuring that social housing residents are able to fix their problems is a priority for the Government. Residents should make use of their landlord's complaints process to resolve issues but where that is not sufficient to resolve the problem residents should contact the Housing Ombudsman, which provides free, impartial and independent advice and support. Whilst the Ombudsman can be an alternative to the use of the legal system, in some instances residents may choose to make use of the courts or tribunal to resolve issues.

In response to the tragic case of Awaab Ishak, the Secretary of State wrote to law firms in December last year asking legal bodies to promote the use of the Housing Ombudsman to social housing residents who had concerns about their housing. A copy of that letter is available on gov.uk

If the Hon. Member has some information he would like the Department to examine, I would be grateful if he could send it to my private office.