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

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, pursuant to the Answer of 28 March 2019 to Question 234648 on Housing Ombudsman Service, for what reasons there has been a 24 per cent increase in cases entering the Housing Ombudsman Service’s formal remit for determination in 2018-19.

The increase in cases entering the Housing Ombudsman’s formal remit is likely to reflect the increase in the volume of residents exiting landlords’ complaints procedures and still seeking resolution. We cannot comment with certainty on the reasons for the increase as the explanation will be the aggregate of individual factors across social landlords. Responsive repairs has continued to be the largest category of complaint received at 37 per cent of the overall number in 2017-18.