Summary: We will not investigate Mr X’s complaints about the Council’s handling of his COVID-19 business grant applications. This is because the complaints are late and I have seen no good reasons to exercise our discretion to investigate them. We cannot investigate Mr X’s complaint that the Council has applied for liability orders against him for non-payment of business rates as such matters are not subject to investigation by the Ombudsman.

The complaint

1. The complainant, Mr X, complains about the Council’s handling of his applications for grants under several COVID-19 grant schemes. He says the Council wrongly, and without good reason, refused two of his applications and delayed paying him the grant for a third scheme. He also complains the Council is now pursuing him for non-payment of business rates and that it has not properly dealt with his complaints.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. We investigate complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’, which we call ‘fault’. We must also consider whether any fault has had an adverse effect on the person making the complaint, which we call ‘injustice’. We provide a free service, but must use public money carefully. We do not start an investigation if we decide the tests set out in our Assessment Code are not met. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended)
3. The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate.
4. We cannot investigate late complaints unless we decide there are good reasons. Late complaints are when someone takes more than 12 months to complain to us about something a council has done. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 26B and 34D, as amended)
5. We cannot investigate a complaint about the start of court action or what happened in court. (Local Government Act 1974, Schedule 5/5A, paragraph 1/3, as amended)

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How I considered this complaint

6. I considered information provided by Mr X and the Council.
7. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

8. The Council refused Mr X’s grant applications in 2021 and 2022 and paid him more than £2,500 under another grant scheme in July 2021. Mr X complained to the Ombudsman about the Council’s actions in June 2024 and his complaints about these issues are therefore late. It is clear from the information Mr X has provided that he has sought to challenge the Council’s decisions and has complained about them but this does not provide good reasons to exercise our discretion to investigate his complaint. The Council has been consistent in its responses and explanations that Mr X is not entitled to the grants and we would therefore have expected him to complain to us sooner.
9. The Council has more recently applied to the court for liability orders for non-payment of business rates and we cannot consider any complaint about its applications for the reason set out at Paragraph 5. The Council is entitled to pursue payment and it is for the courts to decide whether Mr X is liable for them.
10. Mr X is also unhappy with the way the Council dealt with his complaint. But it is not a good use of public resources to look at the Council’s complaints handling if we are not going to look at the substantive issue complained about. We will not therefore investigate this issue separately.

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Final decision

11. We will not investigate this complaint. This is because Mr X’s complaints about the Council’s handling of his grant applications are late and we cannot consider any complaint about the Council’s applications for liability orders at court.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman