By Aimee Stevens

The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government made a new announcement on 1 October 2018. On the face of it, it is brilliant news. The announcement addresses the need for planning reform to provide the homes the country so desperately needs, measures to improve the safety of high rise buildings following the Grenfell Disaster and a ‘New Homes Ombudsman’.

This new ombudsman is said to “champion the rights of homebuyers and help ensure that when they buy a new home they get the quality of build they rightly expect”. The announcement continues that “the New Homes Ombudsman will protect the interests of homebuyers and hold developers to account when things go wrong.”