Abstract
A major problem associated with the considerable changes which have taken place in the structure of public administration and the delivery of public services has been to provide effective accountability mechanisms. One very flexible mechanism is the Ombudsman institution which has been adapted in many different states and to deal with many different services. This paper examines how the Ombudsman institution has been adapted to provide an effective complaints-mechanism for social housing. After outlining how the Ombudsman institution has been used in a variety of ways in the United Kingdom, the paper describes how the Housing Association Tenants Ombudsman Service came to be established. It is focused particularly on the issue of independence, a key feature for effective accountability, and incorporates the Government's proposals in the 1996 Housing Bill to put the Service onto a statutory footing.
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