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Housing and Regeneration Bill

I, too, have added my name in support of this amendment. The occupiers of all other homes have recourse to the courts and most also have access to an independent arbitration scheme to sort out disputes with their landlord or superior owner. The tenants of mobile homes on sites must be unique both in having arbitration scheme based on the landlord deciding on who the arbitrator shall be and in not having any recourse to the courts if they are dissatisfied at the end of the process. The Housing Ombudsman is there for disputes involving housing association and social housing tenants, and indeed for some private landlords' tenants. I hope that, in the review by Sir Bryan Carsberg that came out last week, we shall see similar redress and ombudsman services extended to the tenants of private landlords. People who buy their own homes will have access to the redress and ombudsman scheme that will become compulsory later in the year under the Consumers, Estate Agents and Redress Act 2007. However, in all these cases people also have recourse to the courts if dissatisfied with the arbitration proceedings. It is strange that this one group is denied protection either by the independent arbitration system or recourse to the courts. I hope that the Minister will be able to give me some reassurance that this position will change.