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

The complaint

1. Mrs X complained about the Council’s failure to give her housing application a higher priority due to the condition of her current home and her daughter’s medical needs. She wants the Council to give her application additional medical priority.

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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, or
• further investigation would not lead to a different outcome.

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

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How I considered this complaint

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

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My assessment

5. Mrs X lives in a housing association property which she says is damp and too small for her family due to her daughter’s medical condition. She provided some medical evidence to the Council with her application but the Council told her that daughter’s condition was short-term and did not meet the requirements of the allocations policy for medical priority.
6. The Council told her that her housing association landlord was to carry out works to improve the ventilation in her home.
7. Mrs X asked the Council to review the assessment, but the review did not change her banding.
8. 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 recognise that the demand for social housing far outstrips the supply of properties in many areas. We may not find fault with a council for failing to re-house someone, if it has prioritised applicants and allocated properties according to its published lettings scheme policy

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Final decision

9. We will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint about the Council’s assessment of her housing application. This is because 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