Summary: We cannot investigate Mr X’s complaint about the Council’s management of social housing as the issue falls outside our jurisdiction. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint about the Council’s handling of his ‘freedom of information’ request as the Information Commissioner is better placed to consider the matter.

The complaint

1. The complainant, Mr X, complains the Council has failed to carry out repairs and to keep clean a block of flats it owns. He also complains about the Council’s failure to respond to his ‘freedom of information’ request and about its handling of his complaint.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate.
3. We cannot investigate complaints about the provision or management of social housing, including housing let on a long lease, by a council that is a registered social housing provider. (Local Government Act 1974, paragraph 5A schedule 5, as amended)
4. The Information Commissioner's Office considers complaints about freedom of information. Its decision notices may be appealed to the First Tier Tribunal (Information Rights). So where we receive complaints about freedom of information, we normally consider it reasonable to expect the person to refer the matter to the Information Commissioner.

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How I considered this complaint

5. I considered information provided by Mr X and the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

6. The substantive issue in this matter concerns the Council’s management of social housing and as set out at Paragraph 3 we have no jurisdiction to investigate such issues.
7. Mr X has made a ‘freedom of information’ request to the Council for information related to its cleaning of the property but says he has not received a response. The Information Commissioner is better placed to decide if the Council has complied with its obligations under the relevant legislation and I have seen no reasons why it would be unreasonable for him to complain to them.
8. Mr X is also unhappy with the Council’s handling of his complaint, but the courts have said that where we cannot investigate a complaint about the main or underlying issue, we cannot normally investigate related issues either. This is because there is little we could achieve by investigating the Council’s handling of a complaint about a matter which itself is outside our jurisdiction.

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Final decision

9. We cannot investigate this complaint. This is because it concerns the Council’s management of social housing and such matters fall outside our jurisdiction. The Information Commissioner is better placed to consider Mr X’s concerns about the Council’s handling of his ‘freedom of information’ request.

Investigator’s decision on behalf of the Ombudsman

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman