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

The complaint

1. Miss X complained about the Council’s assessment of her housing application. She currently has priority due to overcrowding but her medical assessment was unsuccessful and she remains in Band 2A. She wants the Council to give her priority for her medical circumstances.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. We investigate complaints of injustice caused by ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’. I have used the word fault to refer to these. We consider whether there was fault in the way an organisation made its decision. If there was no fault in the decision making, we cannot question the outcome. (Local Government Act 1974, section 34(3), as amended)

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How I considered this complaint

3. I considered the information provided by the complainant. I have also considered the Council’s housing allocations policy.
4. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

5. Miss X says she lives in overcrowded housing with her parents and two older brothers. She has np space of her own and has sleeping and privacy problems caused by the lack of space. The Council awarded her housing application with Band 2A which recognises the overcrowding. She applied for an assessment of medical priority because she suffers from anxiety due to the overcrowding problem. The application included supporting evidence from her GP and medical therapists.
6. The Council sent the medical assessment papers to its independent medical advisor. The advisor decided not to apply medical priority because the conditions were not sufficient to meet the requirements of the housing allocations scheme. Miss X’s case remains on the same banding for overcrowding.
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 recognise that the demand for social housing far outstrips the supply of properties in many areas. I have seen no evidence of fault which would suggest that Miss X should be placed in a higher banding.

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Final decision

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

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman