Housing Ombudsman
Richard Blakeway
Richard was appointed as Housing Ombudsman from 1 September 2019. He has extensive experience in the housing sector, with previous roles including Deputy Mayor of London for Housing, chair of the Homes for London board and a non-executive director of Homes England.
During his eight years at the Greater London Authority, Richard was responsible for housing investment and land generation programmes. He also led the creation of the first team at City Hall to address rough sleeping, commissioning around £10 million of services each year, as well as the first Social Impact Bond on homelessness.
Richard is a former board member of the Chartered Institute of Housing and has been an election observer in Somaliland and Ukraine. He is a fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and sits on the Administrative Justice Council.
Richard also chairs the Ombudsman Association and is a board member of the British Library.
Chief Operating Officer
Andrea Keenoy
Andrea joined the Housing Ombudsman Service in September 2015 as the Director of Finance and Corporate Performance. She was Interim Housing Ombudsman for a short time and was then appointed as Chief Operating Officer.
She is a qualified Chartered Accountant with over 20 years’ experience. She previously worked for the National Audit Office (NAO) where she held roles overseeing the audits of a wide range of government departments and their arm’s-length bodies. She was also part of the technical support team, leading on a range of interventions aimed at improving governance, and was seconded to the House of Commons Scrutiny Unit.
Outside of work, Andrea is an Independent Commissioner the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman and an Associate Governor at a maintained primary school, attending its Finance and Resources Committee. She is also a review team member of the International Ombudsman Institute’s peer review panel.
Director of Dispute Support and Resolution
Justin Crittall
Justin joined the Housing Ombudsman Service in August 2023 as the Director of Dispute Support and Resolution. Justin brings over 15 years’ experience of working in social housing with 8 years’ experience working in a variety of both operational and strategic senior management positions. These roles have included overseeing large front line customer facing teams, leading complaint management functions and the delivery of transformational programmes.
Justin holds a degree in Psychology and is a member of the Charted Institute of People Development. Outside of work Justin has held positions as an Advisory Board member within a local council and a Trustee for a local food charity.
Director of Finance and Corporate Services
Michael Letters
Michael joined the Housing Ombudsman Service in July 2023 as the Director of Finance and Corporate Services. Michael is a Chartered Management Accountant with over 25 years’ experience in private and public sector organisations. He previously worked for the Legal Ombudsman where he was a member of the Executive Team and led the Finance, Procurement and ICT services.
Prior to joining the Legal Ombudsman, Michael worked in local government supporting major corporate projects and acted as Lead Finance Officer for traded services where he encouraged a commercial focus to improve performance.
He has extensive experience of improving financial performance through the introduction of more rigorous reporting and analysis, and enjoys leading corporate teams in providing high quality support.
Director of Quality, Engagement and Development
Kathryn Eyre
Kathryn joined the Housing Ombudsman Service in June 2022 as the Director of Quality, Engagement and Development. She has worked in social housing since 1991 in a range of roles from front line housing management to strategic business planning and as Head of Quality and Performance for a large midlands-based housing association. Kathryn has a first-class honours degree in Business and is a member of the Chartered Institute of Housing.
Kathryn has extensive experience in leading on improvement and culture change programmes including as lead for Investors in People and Barrett’s Cultural Values model; and previously also led the customer experience and engagement functions. Outside work she was previously trustee for a community-based charity.