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

The complaint

1. Ms X complained about the Council’s assessment of her housing application. She says that her children require separate bedrooms because of their ages but she is only in Band 3 priority on the housing register and she wants the Council to move her to band 2 so that she has a better chance of being rehoused.

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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 how the organisation made its decision, 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 and the Council. 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. Ms X says she has been on the housing register since 2014 and her children have reached the age when they require s separate bedroom. She is currently in Band 3 on the housing register which takes account of her overcrowding and the fact that she is working locally. The allocations policy only awards Band 2 status for applicants who meet other housing needs such as severe medical needs, urgent social welfare or other occupation problems with their current housing.
6. Ms X has applied for medical priority on at least 3 occasions, as recently as this year, but she does not meet the threshold for medical priority. Under her current circumstances the banding awarded by the Council is correct according to its allocations policy.
7. The Ombudsman is not an appeal body. This means we do not take a second look at a decision to decide if it was wrong. Instead, we look at the processes an organisation followed to make its decision. If we consider it followed those processes correctly, we cannot question whether the decision was right or wrong, regardless of whether someone disagrees with the decision the organisation made.
8. 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.

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Final decision

9. We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s assessment of a 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