Summary: We will not investigate Ms X’s complaint about the Council’s assessment of her housing application. There is insufficient evidence of fault which would warrant an investigation.

The complaint

1. Ms X complained about the Council’s decision that she is ineligible to be included on its register for social housing. She says she needs to move to an area where more medical and social support is available.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. The Ombudsman investigates 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 may decide not to continue with an investigation if we decide:

• there is not enough evidence of fault to justify investigating, or
• we could not add to any previous investigation by the organisation.

(Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6))

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How I considered this complaint

3. I considered information provided by the complainant.
4. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

5. Ms X lives in a one-bedroom flat rented from the Council. She applied to the housing register to move closer to family and support networks and provided medical evidence of needs. The Council rejected the application because it decided that she was adequately housed and had insufficient medical needs to move.
6. Ms X asked for a review of the decision and provided further medical evidence. The Council took several months to send the review decision. However, the final decision was unchanged, and the Council’s housing medical officer did not consider there was sufficient need to meet the requirements of its allocation policy.
7. The Ombudsman may not find fault with a council’s assessment of a housing application/ a housing applicant’s priority if it has carried this out in line with its published allocations scheme. We may not question the merits of decisions which have been properly made. We do not comment on judgements councils make, unless they are affected by fault in the decision-making process.

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Final decision

8. We will not investigate Ms X’s complaint about the Council’s assessment of her housing application. There is insufficient evidence of fault which would warrant an investigation.

Investigator’s decision on behalf of the Ombudsman

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman