Summary: We will not investigate this complaint that the Council treated the complainant highly unfairly and unfavourably. This is because there is not enough evidence of fault in the way the Council reached its review decision on her housing register application.

The complaint

1. The complainant, Miss B, complained that the Council treated her highly unfairly and unfavourably in respect of equal opportunities. She said she had suffered discrimination and had been racially profiled. She wants a housing transfer to a suitable property.

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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 by a council acting as a registered social housing provider. (Local Government Act 1974, paragraph 5A schedule 5, as amended)
4. 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, or
• we cannot achieve the outcome someone wants. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6))

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How I considered this complaint

5. I considered information provided by the complainant and the Council’s housing review decision.
6. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
7. Miss B has had an opportunity to comment on my draft decision.

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My assessment

8. Miss B rents a studio flat from the Council. She told us a neighbour who is a council tenant was able to bid or social housing when her child became eight months old. She told us there is not enough space in the flat for her and her son who was ten months old when she complained to us. She made a complaint to the Council. She said the Council failed to deal with her complaint in a professional manner. She told us she complained in January 2021 but the Council failed to reply until May 2021. It was then treated as a housing review with no opportunity for her to appeal to ask for the issues to be looked at again.
9. Miss B has complained about severe damp and mould in her home. We cannot investigate complaints about the Council’s management of its social housing. We can, however, consider complaints about the Council’s allocation of social housing.
10. It was not fault for the Council to deal with Miss B’s complaint about her housing transfer application as a review rather than a complaint. That is because a review is the appropriate process for councils to use when a person complains about the outcome of a council’s assessment of their housing need. Councils can then reconsider all the information the applicant has provided and decide whether or not the original decision should still stand.
11. There has been delay by the Council in completing its review. But this has not significantly disadvantaged Miss B. That is because the Council decided not to change its original decision. Her situation would not have been significantly different had the Council made its review decision more quickly. So there is not enough justification for us to investigate the Council’s delay.
12. Miss B wants the Council to rehouse her but the Council must allocate its social housing in accordance with its housing allocation scheme. We are not an appeal body with powers to substitute our decision on qualification for the housing register for that of the Council. Our role is to look at the way the Council has reached its decision. The Council must consider the circumstances of each individual applicant which will vary from case to case. In this case, as part of its review, the Council considered all the information Miss B provided and the effect of her protected characteristics on its duties. In those circumstances we do not have a sound enough basis to criticise the Council’s decision-making process.

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Final decision

13. We will not investigate Miss B’s complaint because there is not enough evidence of fault in the way the Council reached its review decision on her housing register application.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman