A new Housing Complaints Resolution Service is announced for the entire housing market.

Dissatisfied homeowners and tenants will have simple and quick access to help when things go wrong, thanks to new plans announced today (24 January 2019) by Communities Secretary Rt Hon James Brokenshire MP.

From broken boilers to cracks in the wall, the new Housing Complaints Resolution Service will potentially help millions by providing a straight-forward way of getting help when faced with unresolved disputes about problems with their home – such as repairs and maintenance.

Unlike other sectors, such as financial services, the housing market has several different complaints bodies, with homeowners and tenants having to navigate their way through a complicated and bureaucratic system just to work out where to register a grievance.

Establishing a single housing complaints service for all residents – no matter whether they rent or own their home – will prevent people from battling with their landlord or builder to resolve issues on their own and make it easier to claim compensation where it’s owed.

Communities Secretary Rt Hon James Brokenshire MP, said:

Creating a housing market that works for everyone isn’t just about building homes – it’s about ensuring people can get the help they need when something goes wrong.

But all too often the process can be confusing and overly bureaucratic, leaving many homeowners and tenants feeling like there is nowhere to go in the event of problems with their home.

The proposals I have announced today will help ensure all residents are able to access help when they need it, so disputes can be resolved faster, and people can get compensation where it’s owed.

Currently, the housing complaints system is confusing – there are multiple complaint bodies covering the housing market, and membership of redress schemes is compulsory for some tenures but not others.

For example, in the private rented sector, there is currently no obligation for landlords to register with a complaints system – leaving thousands of renters without any course for redress.

To combat this, the Communities Secretary has today announced that private landlords will be legally required to become members of a redress scheme – with a fine of up to £5,000 if they fail to do so.

And to protect the interests of home-owners who buy new build homes, government has also reiterated its commitment to establishing a New Homes Ombudsman which will champion home buyers, protect their interests and hold developers to account.

Legislation will be brought forward at the earliest possible opportunity to require all new developers to belong to the Ombudsman – giving homebuyers the confidence that when they get the keys to a new home they are getting the quality of build they expect.

Developers will also have to belong to the new body by 2021 if they wish to participate in the government’s landmark Help to Buy scheme.

The Housing Complaints Resolution Service will be developed with a new Redress Reform Working Group made up of representatives from across the sector, working with industry and consumers.

This is part of on-going work by the government to make the property market fairer and more transparent for everyone.

These measures form part of the government response to the consultation Strengthening consumer redress in the housing market, which ran from 18 February to 16 April 2018, and received over 1,200 responses.

The consultation looked at a range of issues including:

• how the current complaints and redress landscape works
• whether streamlining redress in housing could help improve delivery of services
• how the ‘in-house’ complaints process and other practices and processes in redress could be improved
• how any gaps in housing redress could be filled, with a particular focus on purchasers of new build homes and private rented sector tenants

The policy proposals in this document primarily relate to England. Where proposed legislation has scope outside England with regard to devolved matters, we will continue to engage and consult the devolved administrations to seek agreement.

Redress for social housing residents is being considered separately. The response to the social housing green paper and the call for evidence for the review of social housing regulation are due to be published in spring 2019.

The government announced the proposal to create a New Homes Ombudsman service in October 2018. This response indicates how that service will sit in the wider redress landscape and the next steps of its implementation.

The Housing Complaints Resolution Service will provide a single point of access to resolve complaints for housing consumers, when ‘in-house’ complaint processes have been exhausted, through the current schemes providing alternative dispute resolution, while preserving the expertise of existing providers.

Britain’s education sector remains one of its most lucrative international assets with new figures revealing today that its exports overseas generate almost £20bn for the UK economy (24 January).

The figures, which include income from international students and English language training overseas, are growing year-on-year to an estimated £19.9bn in 2016 and an increase of 26% since 2010 – generating significant revenue for the UK, alongside other well-known exports such as automobiles, advertising and insurance.

International exports adding a significant contribution to the economy include:

• Higher education – £13.4bn
• Transnational education (TNE) – £1.9bn
• Education products and services – £1.9bn
• English Language Training Courses – £1.6bn
• Independent schools – £0.9bn

The figures are a welcome reminder of the strength of the sector and the UK’s exports as it prepares to leave the EU, and plans are being put in place to strengthen post-Brexit Britain’s international exports even further through a new International Education Strategy, which will be launched in 2019. After leaving the EU, the UK will also be able to use its newly independent trade policy to further our trading ties with key overseas markets.

This follows the Education Secretary’s speech at the Education World Forum on Monday (21 January), welcoming education ministers from across the globe to work with the UK as a world-leader in the education sector.

The statistics out today show an increase in education-related equipment, including digital technology, building on the Education Secretary’s call yesterday (23 January) for the tech industry and education sector to make smarter use of technology to reduce teachers’ workload at the Bett Show in London.

Education has long been one of the UK’s most attractive offers for export, with English being the language of business and a central global language. The most recent data shows the UK is the most popular destination for English Language Training making up around 45% of the total market.

Education Secretary Damian Hinds said:

The UK has always provided world class education and these figures underline the importance of it to our economy – cementing our status as a global leader in this sector.

International university students constitute an important earnings source for our universities but they are also an important part of Britain’s cultural influence in the world. As well as this, there are big growth opportunities in areas like education technology, services and satellite or partner campuses.

Education is a fundamental part of our offer to the world, and we will work to maintain and grow this in the years to come.

Minister for Investment Graham Stuart said:

This is another record year for education exports. More and more students are coming to the UK to study and our immigration changes will make the UK even friendlier as a place to study and work. From education technology to British curricula and assessment we have what the world is looking for in education.

DIT is there to support British companies from giants to start ups – to gain market share, and help the world learn. We look forward to producing a refreshed International Education Strategy this year and working with the sector to grow even faster in global markets.

The figures for education-related exports include tuition fees and living expenditure of EU and non-EU students, research and other contracts, as well as products and services such as through qualification awarding bodies and education-related equipment including educational technology.

International higher education students make a significant contribution to the UK and our world-class HE sector, both economically and culturally.  The latest figures from the Higher Education Statistics Agency show the number of international students starting courses at UK higher education institutions in 2017/18 are the highest on record, with a 5% from the previous year.

These students, both EU and non-EU, contributed an estimated £11.9bn to the UK economy in tuition fees and living expenditure in 2016.

As well as this, our universities are at the forefront of global research and teaching, with four in the top 10 universities in the world. These high standards, found right across the board, have led to around 460,000 international HE students studying here in 2017/18.

Charity regulator opens investigation into charity over governance and administrative concerns

The Charity Commission, the independent regulator of charities in England and Wales, has opened a statutory inquiry into GTC (registered charity number 1160421) due to concerns over the administration of the charity. The inquiry was opened on 12 December 2018.

The charity’s objects are for the relief of poverty of people in the UK, mainly in the Aylesbury area of Buckinghamshire.

The Commission has concerns about the charity’s governance and administration as there appears to be only one trustee which means that conflicts of interest cannot be adequately managed. In addition the charity’s accounting and reporting submissions lack clarity.

The Commission also has regulatory concerns about the charity’s activities and whether the charity is applying its resources in furtherance of its charitable purposes.

Despite the declared objects, analysis of the charity’s accounts and annual reports indicate that the charity directs funding to Greece, Turkey, Syria and Pakistan for purposes outside of its remit.

As a result of these regulatory concerns the Commission has opened a statutory inquiry to examine the charity’s governance (including leadership), its management and its policies and practices, in the context of applicable law, good practice and its obligations as a charity, both generally and particularly in relation to:

• the extent to which the trustee has complied with the charity’s governing document in respect of the appointment of a full trustee body

• the charity’s accounting and reporting arrangements and the extent to which the trustee has complied with his duty to provide timely and accurate accounts to the Commission

• the extent to which potential conflicts of interest have been adequately managed

• whether charity funds have been misapplied

Ends

Notes to Editors

1. The Charity Commission is the regulator of charities in England and Wales. To find out more about our work see the about us page on GOV.UK.
2. Search for charities on our check charity tool.
3. Section 46 of the Charities Act 2011 gives the Commission the power to institute inquiries. The opening of an inquiry gives the Commission access to a range of investigative, protective and remedial legal powers.