Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about housing allocations. This is because there is insufficient evidence of fault by the Council to justify further investigation.

The complaint

1. Ms X complains the Council has delayed re-housing her to a property more suited to meet her family’s needs. She says this has caused her distress and her children’s needs are not being met. She wants the Council to provide suitable housing in her preferred area.

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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.

(Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))

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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. Ms X is currently on the Council’s housing register awaiting re-housing. In December 2022, the Council awarded Ms X medical priority and placed her in priority band B.
6. Ms X has continued to bid on properties since then. She complained to the Council that she had not yet been allocated a property despite her medical priority and the length of time she has been bidding.
7. In its complaint response, the Council confirmed it accepted her family had medical needs and it had awarded medical priority to reflect this. It accepted she had been waiting a long time but said this was due to the demand for social housing outstripping its available housing stock. It advised her to continue to bid regularly on suitable properties and to consider registering with alternative housing providers to increase her chance of re-housing.
8. We will not investigate this complaint. The Council has accepted the family’s medical needs and the awarded priority is in line with its housing allocations policy. Ms X has not yet received an offer of re-housing but this is due to the demand for housing being greater than the available supply, rather than any administrative fault by the Council. There is insufficient evidence of fault to justify further investigation.

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Final decision

9. We will not investigate Ms X’s complaint because there is insufficient evidence of fault by the Council.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman