Oldham Metropolitan Borough Council (24 007 514)
Category : Environment and regulation > Other
Decision : Closed after initial enquiries
Decision date : 20 Nov 2024
The Ombudsman's final decision:
Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s handling of Mr X’s complaint. This is because the tests in our Assessment Code are not met and there are insufficient grounds to warrant an investigation.
The complaint
- Mr X complains about the Council’s recent handling of his complaint concerning a housing matter with which he has been involved.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
- 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, or
- any fault has not caused injustice to the person who complained, or
- any injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement, or
- we could not add to any previous investigation by the organisation, or
- further investigation would not lead to a different outcome, or
- we cannot achieve the outcome someone wants, or
- there is no worthwhile outcome achievable by our investigation.
(Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))
How I considered this complaint
- I considered information provided by the complainant and the Council, including its response to the complaint.
- I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
- Mr X has previously complained to the Ombudsman about matters concerning his landlord and earlier Council complaint handling. We will not revisit these issues.
- More recently, the Council has acknowledged delay in responding to a further complaint from Mr X. However, while there was delay, we will not investigate complaint handling at this stage when the Council is still considering the substantive issue.
Final decision
- We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because the tests in our Assessment Code are not met and there are insufficient grounds to warrant an investigation.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman