The Housing Ombudsman Service currently administers the only approved redress scheme handling complaints from tenants of social housing providers. The service is provided for under section 51 of, and Schedule 2 to, the Housing Act 1996. The private housing activities of some social housing providers who also let properties in the private rented sector currently fall within the scheme’s mandatory jurisdiction. Residential landlords in the private rented sector can also voluntarily join the Housing Ombudsman Service.
	The government does not intend to bring section 72 into force before the new private rented sector Ombudsman service is established. The provisions in section 72 can be brought into force separately, at different times, if this is deemed necessary.
	It is the government’s intention to ensure that all private tenants have equal access to redress and that the new Ombudsman has oversight of the whole private rented sector. To enable this, section 72 makes provision (by amending Schedule 2 to the Housing Act 1996) to remove the jurisdiction of any approved social landlord redress scheme over private residential landlords and the private rented sector housing activities of social housing providers. This is so that the private rental activities of these landlords will be covered instead under a private rented sector scheme approved under the Renters’ Rights Act.
	The updated paragraph 10 makes the Secretary of State responsible by default for appointing the Ombudsman for social housing under a body corporate model. Although the Secretary of State may delegate this function, they will remain the appointing authority and can revoke delegation at any time. This seeks to ensure that Ombudsmen, while independent of government, are suitably accountable to the department regardless of the corporate structure of the scheme administrator.
Part 2: Residential landlord Chapter 2: Landlord Redress Schemes Section 72: Housing activities under social rented sector scheme Background