Blackpool BC (04C00373) FR
Homelessness Further report
30 September 2005
‘Mr Wise’ (not his real name for legal reasons) complained that the Council did not respond properly when he and his family of 10 presented themselves as being homeless during the summer of 2003, with the result that they suffered humiliation, upset and distress at having to repeatedly find their own accommodation at great inconvenience.
In her first report (January 2005), the Ombudsman found that the Council failed to provide the family with a written decision with reasons for that decision and guidance upon their right of review, and that it failed to provide interim accommodation for the family while making its enquiries. The result was that they had to find and pay for accommodation themselves.
The Ombudsman found maladministration causing injustice and recommended that the Council should reimburse Mr Wise for the actual cost of accommodating the family for a six-week period, with a further £1,000 compensation for distress. In response to the first report, the Council had accepted that it should reimburse Mr Wise for the actual cost of accommodation in Blackpool for approximately six weeks from 7 July 2003 and had also ensured that staff were trained to deal with those presenting as homeless properly in accordance with the law and the Code of Guidance. It had, however, refused to pay Mr Wise any compensation for the distress which his family had experienced as a result of the Council not finding them temporary accommodation. The minutes of the Council’s Standards Committee which had considered the Ombudsman’s report provided no reasons for this refusal, but in answer to a request for such an explanation a Council officer wrote:
“The Standards Committee, whilst accepting that compensation should be paid due to the Council’s failure to provide accommodation for the family whilst the appropriate statutory enquiries were carried out, did not consider that the failure of the Council’s processes in this matter were such as to cause distress to the family, which was occasioned by their own circumstances rather than any act or omission on the Council’s behalf”.
The Ombudsman said it was inconsistent for the Council to accept its maladministration but not to recognise its obligation to remedy in full the injustice arising. He said:
“It is clear from what the complainants have told me that they suffered considerable anxiety and distress while searching for and frequently changing accommodation in Blackpool. The Council should now pay the complainants £1,000 to remedy that injustice.”
Date Updated: 01/03/10