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

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what steps his Department is taking to (a) extend the role of the Housing Ombudsman and (b) increase other protections for leaseholders.

Currently, leaseholders with a landlord who is a member of the Housing Ombudsman Scheme can seek redress from the Housing Ombudsman. Managing agents employed by other freeholders are already required by law to be members of one of the following two redress schemes: the Property Redress Scheme and the Property Ombudsman.

To increase protections for other leaseholders, the Government, as part of a comprehensive programme of leasehold reform, intends to legislate to extend mandatory membership of a redress scheme to freeholders of leasehold properties who do not employ a managing agent to join a redress scheme.

The Social Housing White Paper will set out measures to empower tenants and provide more effective redress through the Housing Ombudsman Service and better regulation. It will be published in due course.