Amerdeep Somal has been named as the preferred candidate for the role of our permanent Ombudsman, taking up the position in January 2024 from current interim Ombudsman Paul Najsarek.

The provisional appointment will be reviewed by the Levelling Up, Housing and Communities Select Committee later this month and confirmed by Royal Warrant later this year.

Amerdeep brings a wealth of professional experience to the role as the current Financial Regulators Complaints Commissioner and the Chief Commissioner at the Data and Marketing Commission. She is also a Judge of the Asylum and Immigration Tribunal and a former founding Commissioner of the Independent Police Complaints Commission.

Ms. Somal is the incoming Board Chair of the Law Society, a role she will take on in January 2024 alongside her position as Ombudsman, and is a current Board member for the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman.

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We issued our latest focus report addressing the way councils are tackling antisocial behaviour in our communities.

Our report explained that people are suffering because councils are not thinking comprehensively about how they address the issue.

Local councils across England have a broad range of tools available to them to tackle ASB, but all too often we're finding they are either not using them – or do not fully understand the powers they have.

In the past year, we've upheld nearly three-quarters (74%) of the cases we've investigated. Cases range from low-level issues such as dog fouling and inconsiderate parking to more serious sustained harassment and intimidation.

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We published our first joint investigation with the Housing Ombudsman earlier this month.

We found Nottingham City Council and Nottingham City Homes (NCH) did not do enough to help a vulnerable resident when she was faced with antisocial behaviour, and subsequent requests to move house.

We've been working closely with colleagues in the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman (PHSO) for a number of years now on cases where our roles investigating social care overlap. 

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We've updated our popular guidance for local authority planning departments.

The special report - which we originally published in 2014 - offers advice and guidance to people who work in councils’ planning function, along with suggested questions local councillors can use to scrutinise their own authority’s performance.

Download the report