Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about Mr X’s housing application. There is not enough evidence of fault by the Council.

The complaint

1. Mr X complains about the Council’s handling of his housing application. In particular, he says the Council has not taken account of his health. Mr X says this means he is remaining in unsuitable housing.

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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 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.
4. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

5. Mr X says the Council has “completely ignored” his physical and mental health needs. The Council says when Mr X supplied medical information, it increased his housing register priority from Band 5 to Band 2. That was a significant increase in priority. So I do not agree the Council has ignored Mr X’s medical circumstances.
6. If Mr X was dissatisfied with getting Band 2, he could have used his right to ask the Council to review the banding decision. If Mr X currently believes there is medical information the Council has not considered, he can ask the Council to reconsider his priority. I do not see enough evidence of fault by the Council on this point.
7. Mr X argues the Council could have given him one of several vacant social housing properties it advertised and could then have offered Mr X’s current social housing property to someone else. The Council has no social housing of its own. Its role is to assign vacant housing association properties in line with the Council’s allocations policy. The housing associations can also have their own criteria for some properties. It is not the Council’s role expressly to search for a property particularly suitable for Mr X. Mr X suggests the people who got the properties he refers to did not have disabilities, unlike him. That is necessarily speculative. Anyway, disability is not the only ground on which the Council prioritises applicants for housing. There is not enough evidence of fault in the Council not allocating Mr X one of those properties.
8. Mr X evidently disagrees with the Council’s overall approach to allocating housing. He would like the Council to do this in a different way that might rehouse him sooner. However, the law says the Council must have an allocations scheme and can only assign housing in line with that scheme. The Council is entitled to have the particular policy it has adopted. Mr X’s unhappiness is understandable and he is entitled to want a different approach, but that does not enable me to find fault with the Council.

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Final decision

9. I appreciate Mr X’s circumstances are difficult. However, we will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because there is not enough evidence of fault by the Council.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman