Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the banding the Council has given to Mrs X’s housing application. She says the banding given does not properly reflect the impact of their housing on her husband’s medical issues. This is because there is insufficient evidence of fault with how the Council considered Mrs X’s housing application. However, there has been service failure with the Council’s complaint handling. The Council has agreed to resolve this by providing a proportionate remedy for the injustice caused.

The complaint

1. Mrs X complains about the banding the Council has given to her housing application. She says the banding given does not properly reflect the impact of their housing on her husband’s medical issues, or that her household is overcrowded.

Back to top

The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. We investigate complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’. In this statement, I have used the word fault to refer to these. We must also consider whether any fault has had an adverse impact on the person making the complaint. I refer to this as ‘injustice’. If there has been fault which has caused an injustice, we may suggest a remedy. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 26(1) and 26A(1), as amended)
3. We provide a free service, but must use public money carefully. We do not start an investigation if we decide there is not enough evidence of fault to justify investigating. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6))

Back to top

How I considered this complaint

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

Back to top

My assessment

6. Mrs X says the banding priority given to her housing application is wrong. She says the Council has not properly considered the impact of their housing on her husband’s medical conditions.
7. An investigation is not justified as there is insufficient evidence of fault. This is because the evidence shows the Council has properly considered Mrs X’s husband’s medical condition and acknowledged he cannot use the bath in the property. While we acknowledge Mrs X disagrees with the Council’s banding decision, the Council is entitled to consider the criteria for Band 2 is not met following consideration of the evidence. The Ombudsman cannot overturn the Council’s decision if it was made properly.
8. Further, the Council awarded Mrs X’s application an accessible housing register category of A or B. This means any bids by Mrs X will be prioritised ahead of any families for bids on properties with this classification. Again, this demonstrates the Council has properly considered all relevant evidence before making its banding decision. In addition, Mrs X’s housing application has been allocated as a three-bedroom need. Therefore, the bedroom need of the household has also been appropriately considered.
9. Mrs X first made a complaint about the matter in November 2022. The Council issued its stage 1 complaint response in December 2022. Mrs X asked the Council to respond to her complaint at stage 2 of the Council’s complaints policy.
10. The Council failed to respond to Mrs X’s stage 2 complaint within 25 working days. There is evidence Mrs X chased the Council for its response before coming to us. The Council confirmed to us it has a significant backlog of complaints to respond to and that it had no timescale for when it would be able to respond to Mrs X’s stage 2 complaint.
11. The Council has agreed with our view that there has been service failure with its complaint handling. We consider this will have caused Mrs X some frustration. We therefore recommended the Council apologise to Mrs X for the delay.

Back to top

Agreed action

12. To its credit, the Council agreed to complete the above recommendation within two weeks of the final decision statement.

Back to top

Final decision

13. We will not investigate this complaint as there is insufficient evidence of fault with how the Council considered Mrs X’s housing application. However, there has been service failure with the Council’s complaint handling, so we have upheld this complaint. The Council has agreed to resolve this by providing a proportionate remedy for the injustice caused to Mrs X.

Back to top

Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman