Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council failing to properly understand Mr X’s complaint. This is because there is insufficient evidence of fault by the Council and we cannot investigate the management of social housing.

The complaint

1. Mr X complains the Council has failed to properly understand his complaint. He says staff conduct has been poor, and this has caused him significant distress.
   Mr X wants the Council to reassign a new officer to the case, look into the Council’s home working policy, a review on staff empathy conduct and reimbursement of costs to him for having to stay elsewhere.

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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 impact 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 or continue an investigation if we decide there is not enough evidence of fault to justify investigating. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))
3. We cannot investigate complaints about the provision or management of social housing by a council acting as a registered social housing provider. (Local Government Act 1974, paragraph 5A schedule 5, as amended)

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How I considered this complaint

4. I considered information provided by the complainant and the Council.
5. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

6. Mr X is a Council tenant. He says the Council wrongly issued him with a community protection warning despite his reports that a neighbour was harassing him. He also says staff from the arms-length management organisation (ALMO) that manages the Council’s housing stock discriminated against him.
7. The Council said it issued the warning because it had received a noise complaint about Mr X. It said Mr X had provided noise recordings, which it would consider, and it asked to install noise monitoring equipment in his property. The Council said the ALMO would consider Mr X’s concerns about harassment and intimidation.
8. We can consider how the Council responded to Mr X’s complaint. The Council considered his complaint, explained why it issued the warning, and agreed to consider the noise evidence he provided. There is not enough evidence of fault in how the Council considered these matters to justify an investigation. We cannot investigate Mr X’s concerns about the ALMO’s handling of harassment, intimidation or discrimination because these are about the management of social housing. This is something we have no power to investigate.

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Final decision

9. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because there is insufficient evidence of fault in the first part of the complaint. For the remaining part, we cannot investigate the management of social housing.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman