Part 5: Other provisions about safety standards, etc. Housing complaints Section 160: Housing complaints made to a housing ombudsman Effect
This section enables social housing complainants to escalate a complaint to the Housing Ombudsman service directly, by removing the existing requirement ("the democratic filter") to make their complaint via a "designated person". A "designated person" may be an MP, Councillor or recognised tenant panel.
	The requirement for the landlord’s complaints process to have been exhausted is preserved by amendments to para (1)of the Housing Act1996which require a complaint to be made in accordance with the scheme. This being that a resident who wishes to escalate a complaint to the Housing Ombudsman Service first needs to have completed their landlord’s own complaints process.
	The new paragraph inserted into the Housing Act 1996 (1A) retains the existing procedures that a resident who wishes to escalate a complaint to the Housing Ombudsman Service first needs to have completed their landlord’s own complaints process.
	Removing the democratic filter seeks to improve and expedite access to the Housing Ombudsman Service (HOS) for social housing complainants who have exhausted their landlord’s internal complaints procedure and still have unresolved complaints. The objective is to promote equity of provision for those seeking redress in the social housing sector with those in other tenures which are not subject to a democratic filter process.
	This should speed up redress for social housing complainants as well as creating equity of provision.