Summary: There was no fault by the Council. The Council’s panel considered the housing register application and made a decision on the banding and bedroom requirement aware of all the relevant facts. There is no evidence of fault in the decision making process.

The complaint

1. The complainant, who I shall call Ms X, complains that she has not been moved from her current property. Ms X says the damp in her property and her medical conditions have not been adequately taken into account. Ms X also wants to bid for a 2 bedroom rather than a 1 bedroom property.
2. Ms X says that having to stay in her existing property has affected her health.

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What I have and have not investigated

3. I have investigated Ms X’s complaint that the Councils assessment of her Council housing priority band and requirement for an extra bedroom is wrong.
4. 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) We can look at how the Council allocates housing, but not complaints about repairs. So, we cannot investigate Ms X’s complaints about the problems with the damp repair.
5. Ms X has made a separate complaint about the Council’s Environmental Health Officer’s response to her complaints about mould in the property. For us to investigate this complaint, Ms X needs to have a final response from the Council’s complaints procedure. At present, this complaint is premature so I have not investigated this part of the complaint.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

6. 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)
7. If we are satisfied with an organisation’s actions or proposed actions, we can complete our investigation and issue a decision statement. (Local Government Act 1974, section 30(1B) and 34H(i), as amended)

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How I considered this complaint

8. I read the papers put in by Ms X.
9. I considered the Council’s comments about the complaint and any supporting documents it provided.
10. Ms X and the organisation had an opportunity to comment on my draft decision. I considered any comments received before making a final decision.

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What I found

11. The Council manages the housing register but has no housing stock. Ms X applied to join the Council’s housing register in August 2022. Her application was rejected as she had not lived in the area for 2 years.
12. The Council reassessed the application after new information was received from Ms X’s social housing landlord. Ms X was placed in band B for a one bedroom property from 9 November 2022. The Council noted that Ms X’s landlord had agreed a management transfer and proposed to offer her up to 3 offers of one bedroom properties. The notes record that Ms X moved out of her property while the landlord had carried out work in response to damp. Unfortunately, work to one wall was not carried out and Ms X did not want to move out again so the work could be completed.

Eligibility for two bedrooms

13. Ms X is currently in a two bedroom property from a social housing landlord that she got from a homeswap. This was not arranged by the Council.
14. Ms X complains that the Council does not agree she can bid for a two bedroom property.
15. The Council’s policy is that a single person is eligible for a one bedroom property.
16. The Council said ‘to consider allowing an applicant to bid on a property larger than the criteria would allow, the case would need to be considered via a homechoice panel referral. The homechoice panel policy states that in some cases the panel will recommend the type of accommodation that an applicant will be eligible to bid for if this is outside of the usual criteria. This includes (but is not limited to) any of the following:
• Provision of extra space for essential equipment provided by the Health or Social Care Service
• Provision of an extra bedroom for live-in care. This can only be considered where live-in care is required for the majority of the time and does not include instances where live-in care is on an ad-hoc basis, or for a relief carer.
17. The Council received advice from Ms X’s social worker who confirmed that she did not have any overnight carers and that any care tasks could be done by a waking carer who did not did a bedroom.
18. The Council considered Ms X’s request for an extra bedroom at a homechoice panel in December 2022. I can see the panel considered all the available evidence which included information from the:
• Private sector housing team
• Social worker
• Occupational therapist
• GP.
• Social housing provider.
19. The panel decided there was not enough evidence to support the need for an extra bedroom. I can see no-fault leading up to this decision, as it was a decision made after considering all the evidence available.

Housing priority banding

20. The Council’s allocations policy has bands. Band A includes an urgent housing need due to health or welfare circumstances (assessed by the HomeChoice panel). Band B includes housing need due to health or welfare circumstances.
21. Ms X complains that her housing application is in Band B, not Band A, which gives the highest priority.
22. Ms X’s application was considered at a HomeChoice panel. I have seen notes of the meeting and it is clear the Council considered all the information from the professionals involved. The panel’s decision was that after viewing the evidence against the Homechoice panel policy, band B correctly acknowledged the level of health and welfare need to move.
23. My role is not to decide which band Ms X’s application should be in. This is for the Council’s officers to do, in accordance with its policy. The Council has considered Ms X’s application at the panel, considered all the evidence and decided it should be in Band B. I can find no evidence there was fault leading up to the decision, so I cannot uphold a complaint on this point. I do appreciate that Ms X disagrees with the decision, but that does not mean there was administrative fault.

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Final decision

24. Subject to further comments by Ms X and the Council, I intend to complete my investigation of this complaint. This complaint is not upheld as I have found no evidence of fault.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman