Summary: Ms X complained the Council has not reviewed her priority on its housing register. Ms X says she continues to live in overcrowded conditions. We have found the Council at fault as Ms X’s priority has not been reviewed. To remedy the injustice caused the Council agreed to apologise, make a payment to Ms X for the uncertainty caused, re-consider her priority and carry out a service improvement.

The complaint

1. Ms X complains she has the incorrect priority on the Council’s housing register and it has not considered her request for extra priority due to overcrowding.
2. Ms X lives in overcrowded conditions and says this has an impact on her family’s health and wellbeing.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

3. 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 significant injustice, or that could cause injustice to others in the future we may suggest a remedy. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 26(1) and 26A(1), as amended)
4. We investigate complaints about councils and certain other bodies. Where an individual, organisation or private company is providing services on behalf of a council, we can investigate complaints about the actions of these providers. (Local Government Act 1974, section 25(7), as amended)
5. 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

6. As part of this investigation, I considered the information provided by Ms X. I made enquiries with the Council and considered the information received in response. I sent a draft of this decision to Ms X and the Council and considered comments received in response.

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What I found

Housing allocations

7. Every local housing authority must publish an allocations scheme that sets out how it prioritises applicants, and its procedures for allocating housing. All allocations must be made in strict accordance with the published scheme. (Housing Act 1996, section 166A(1) & (14)).
8. The term “procedure” covers all aspects of the administration of the allocation process, including the persons or descriptions of persons who make the decisions.
9. An allocations scheme must give reasonable preference to applicants in the following categories:
• homeless people;
• people in insanitary, overcrowded or unsatisfactory housing;
• people who need to move on medical or welfare grounds;
• people who need to move to avoid hardship to themselves or others; (Housing Act 1996, section 166A(3))
10. The Council has a duty to have an allocations scheme and to allocate in line with the scheme. If a Housing Association is a partner in the allocations scheme, that does not change this duty. If the Housing Association is involved in assessing priority or making review decisions, it is acting on behalf of the Council when it carries out these administrative functions.
11. In January 2016 we issued a Focus Report “Full House: Councils’ role in allocating social housing”. We noted that many councils operate their housing allocations scheme in partnership with other councils or Housing Associations. Sometimes these partner organisations manage some of the functions in the allocations scheme. In these circumstances we said the housing association is acting as the agent of the council.
12. This principle is confirmed in section 166(3) of the Housing Act which says: “Every application made to a local housing authority for an allocation of housing accommodation shall (if made in accordance with the procedural requirements of the authority’s allocation scheme) be considered by the authority.”

The Council’s housing allocation policy

13. The Council operates a choice-based lettings scheme for allocating social housing called Find your Home. It places applicants into bands based on their level of priority. The Bands are Band 1: Emergency Priority, Band 2: High Priority, Band 3: Medium Priority and Band 4: Low Priority.
14. Applicants who are overcrowded by one bedroom are placed in Band 4. Applicants overcrowded by two bedrooms or who are overcrowded by one bedroom and statutorily overcrowded are placed into Band 3.
15. The Find your Home website includes a list of Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ). One FAQ says existing Housing Association tenants who are on the Housing Register should report any change of circumstances to their Housing Association.

What happened

16. Ms X is a Housing Association tenant and lives in her property with her three children.
17. Ms X is on the Council’s housing register and is currently in Band 4. In late 2023, Ms X contacted her Housing Association and asked it to look at her Band as she believed she was in the wrong Band. Ms X’s Housing Association told her to contact the Council to have her Band assessed.
18. In January 2024, Ms X contacted the Council. Ms X told the Council she was overcrowded as her three children were sharing a bedroom. Ms X asked the Council to review her banding.
19. In late January 2024, the Council told Ms X it was her Housing Association’s responsibility to assess her banding and she should contact it to do so.
20. In late February 2024, Ms X made a formal complaint to the Council. Ms X said she asked the Council to assess her banding on its housing register after her Housing Association told her she needed to contact the Council to get her banding changed, however it has not done so.
21. Following Ms X’s complaint, correspondence between Ms X’s Housing Association and the Council showed each initially thought the other was responsible for assessing Ms X’s banding. At the end of February 2024, the Council told the Housing Association it was responsible for the assessment and banding of its tenants applications on Find your Home.
22. In early March 2024, the Council responded to Ms X’s complaint. The Council said it discussed who was responsible for assessing Ms X’s application with the Housing Association and it was the Housing Association who should assess Ms X’s banding on Find your Home. The Council told Ms X her enquiry had been referred to the Housing Association and it would get in touch with her.
23. Ms X remained dissatisfied and complained to the Ombudsman.
24. In response to my enquiries, the Council said Ms X raised the issue of her priority on the housing register with the Council in 2021 and 2022. On both occasions the Council told Ms X to complete a change of circumstances form, however Ms X did not do this.

Analysis

25. Ms X asked for her banding to be reassessed in late 2023. She explained she believed she was overcrowded and that her three children were all sharing a bedroom. Initially her Housing Association told her to go to the Council and then subsequently the Council told her it was the Housing Association’s responsibility. Either way Ms X has not had her banding assessed and this is fault.
26. The Council argued it is not its responsibility to assess Ms X’s banding but rather its partner, the Housing Association’s responsibility. In response to Ms X’s complaint the Council told her it had referred her enquiry to the Housing Association who would be in touch, however Ms X says her banding has still not been assessed. When a council operates an allocations scheme in partnership with housing associations, it remains responsible for the actions, or omissions, of those organisations when they carry out allocation functions. So the Council was at fault because it is responsible for the actions of its agent, the Housing Association.
27. Ms X has experienced uncertainty about whether she may have benefited from a higher priority on the housing register if a reconsideration of her banding had been completed. This is an injustice to Ms X.
28. The Council’s housing allocations scheme does not appear to explain how it operates different procedures for assessing applications made by Housing Association tenants. In a previous complaint we found this absence of information on the housing allocations scheme was fault. We asked the Council to amend its housing allocations scheme so it clearly explained the different procedures for assessing applications made by Housing Association Tenants. As of June 2024, the Council explained the review of its housing allocations scheme was ongoing and going through internal authorisation stages.

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Agreed action

29. Within one month of my final decision the Council agreed to carry out the following:
• Apologise to Ms X.
• Pay Ms X £150 to recognise the uncertainty caused from the delays in assessing her banding.
• Look at Ms X’s Find your Home application and decide whether she is in the correct Band or whether she should be moved into a higher Band. If it is the Housing Association’s responsibility to do this the Council should ensure the Housing Association carries out this action.
30. Within three months of my final decision the Council agreed to:
• Complete the review and amendments to its housing allocations scheme so it clearly explains the different procedures for assessing applications made by Housing Association tenants.
31. The Council should provide us with evidence it has complied with the above actions.

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Final decision

32. I have completed my investigation and found the Council was at fault which caused injustice. The Council has agreed to the above actions to remedy the injustice caused.

Investigator’s decision on behalf of the Ombudsman

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman