Join the Housing Ombudsman Resident Panel

Join the Housing Ombudsman Resident Panel to share your experiences, suggest improvements, and work with us to make services better for social housing residents.

As a panel member you can:

1. Share your experiences – tell us about your experiences to help us identify areas where services can be improved and help us make sure residents are at the centre of our work.
2. Shape our service – attend regular meetings with the Ombudsman and have your say via short surveys, consultations, and virtual discussions. Your feedback will give residents a voice in everything we do.
3. Learn more about the Housing Ombudsman – be the first to hear about the work we are doing to improve landlord services and how it will positively impact residents living in social housing.
4. Talk to others – we want to make our service accessible to all residents that live in social housing. As a Panel member, you can help us reach residents in your local community and raise awareness of the work we do.

If you would like to apply to join the panel, please complete the application form.

Resident Panel application form

The form should take no longer than 15 minutes to complete.

Once applications are closed, we will contact you directly to let you know if your application has been successful.

Please note: submitting a form does not automatically guarantee your place on the Resident Panel.

If you have any queries about the application process please contact residentpanel@housing-ombudsman.org.uk.

Why are you asking for my personal information?

We want to make sure the Resident Panel is representative of the diverse demographic of social housing residents across England. The application form asks your gender, disability status, ethnicity, and religion. By completing these questions, we can make sure our Resident Panel is inclusive of a range of groups and communities in social housing that are often underrepresented.

To find out more about how we use your personal information please read our Privacy Notice.

Why are you asking for information about my housing situation?

We want to make sure that our panel is made up of residents that live in different kinds of social housing across England. We want representation from residents and leaseholders living in different types of property and varying landlord type – for example council tenants, housing association residents and co-operatives.

Having this information means we can host focus groups with select groups of residents on special interest topics.

Yes! To be a member of the panel, the only thing you need to be is a social housing resident living in England.

It does not matter if you have not been a member of a tenant or scrutiny panel before or if you have never made a complaint to your landlord or used this service – we want to hear from you!

All social housing landlords must be a member of the Housing Ombudsman Scheme. We also have some private landlords that are voluntary members. If you are not sure if your landlord is registered, you can check on our landlord register.

Find out if your landlord is registered

You will be invited to join at least 4 online meetings per year and sent surveys and consultations which we will ask you to provide feedback on.

You do not need to attend every meeting, but the minimum expectation would be to attend at least 2 meetings per year.

Meetings will take place online via Zoom. They are usually held on an evening and last for about an hour.