Summary: We will not investigate Miss B’s complaint that the Council had failed to give sufficient priority to her housing application. This is because we would not be able to achieve the outcome she is now seeking.

The complaint

1. The complainant, Miss B, complained that the Council had failed to give sufficient priority to her housing application to enable her to move to a property which would meet her family’s needs.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. We investigate complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’. In this statement, I have used the word ‘fault’ to refer to these. We must also consider whether any fault has had an adverse impact on the person making the complaint. I refer to this as ‘injustice’. We provide a free service, but must use public money carefully. We may decide not to start or continue with an investigation if we believe:

• it is unlikely we would find fault, or
• it is unlikely we could add to any previous investigation by the Council, or
• it is unlikely further investigation will lead to a different outcome, or
• we cannot achieve the outcome someone wants. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended)

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How I considered this complaint

3. I have considered the information Miss B provided, the Council’s responses to her complaint and the Council’s published allocation scheme. Miss B has had an opportunity to comment on my draft decision.

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What I found

4. Miss B first contacted us in July 2020. She told us she had applied for medical priority at the beginning of that year but the Council had refused to award it. Miss B said the Council had failed to consider all relevant matters. She then applied for medical priority on new grounds relating to her daughter. The Council again refused to award medical priority after considering its medical advisor’s comments. We told Miss B she needed to complete the Council’s complaints process.
5. In April 2021 the Council sent us a copy of its final response to Miss B’s complaint. The Council said it had now awarded Band B1 priority backdated to a date in June 2019. That meant Miss B could bid for a flat or maisonette with three bedrooms. The Council urged Miss B to continue to bid for available properties and search for possible exchanges. But it said, due to the demand for social housing with three bedrooms, most applicants with priority will bid on average for a minimum of 36 months before their bids are successful.
6. Every local housing authority must publish a housing allocations scheme that sets out how it prioritises applicants, and its procedures for allocating housing. Councils must allocate their housing in accordance with the published scheme. Applicants in the Council’s priority bands, including Band B1, are housed in date order from the date the Council awarded priority.
7. When Miss B first complained to us she said she wanted the Council’s original decision overturned so she could bid for a property with three bedrooms. She can now do this. But in April 2021 Miss B told us she would not be happy with the Council’s final response to her complaint unless it made a direct offer of accommodation to her. That is not an outcome we would be able to achieve for her by investigating her complaint. We have no powers to overrule the Council’s allocation scheme or to order it to make a direct offer. As stated above, the Council must allocate its accommodation in accordance with its published housing allocation scheme.

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Final decision

8. We will not investigate this complaint. This is because we would not be able to achieve the outcome Miss B is now seeking.

Investigator’s decision on behalf of the Ombudsman

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman