The New Homes Ombudsman Service (NHOS) has appointed Nigel Cates (pictured) as its chief ombudsman, taking over from Alison MacDougal.
Cates will take on the role as chief ombudsman in September following MacDougal’s retirement in August.
Cates joins from HSBC, where he worked for over nine years in various senior roles, most recently as the head of financial support and controls, wealth and personal banking.
Prior to that, he was a senior ombudsman at the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) for more than two years. Before that, he was at the Office of Fair Trading for nearly 12 years, initially as the head of consumer credit enforcement and then as the director of competition and consumer.
The NHOS said that Cates joined the organisation at a “critical time” as the government has pledged to build one-and-a-half million new homes over the next four years.
The NHOS was launched in 2022 and was appointed by the New Homes Quality Board to help “resolve dispute[s] between registered developers and homebuyers”. It deals with complaints in the first two years from reservation or practical completion, whichever is later.
Introducing the Green Living Reward
Your clients can now get up to £2,000 cashback for making energy-efficient home
Sponsored by Halifax Intermediaries
In its annual report this year, the firm said that it had dealt with almost 4,000 enquiries, mainly from consumers wanting more information about the service.
Jodi Berg OBE, chair of the NHOS board, said: “We are excited to have Nigel lead this increasingly important service. Not only does he bring significant and relevant experience to the table, but his career has involved substantial senior level representation across the public, private and not for profit sectors. We look forward to welcoming him to our team at NHOS and to the TDS Group at large.”
Cates added: “I am delighted to be joining NHOS at this critical stage in its development. With the government committed to an ambitious programme of new housebuilding, there is a growing recognition that the service should be moved onto a statutory footing to ensure that all new homeowners have access if needed to a first-rate ombudsman service.
“I look forward to building on the success to date of NHOS and to working with the New Homes Quality Board and developers to further improve the standard of new housing across the UK.”
