Summary: Mrs X complained the Council delayed considering her application to join the Council’s housing register for over three years, during which time she was unable to bid for a Council property. The Council failed to consider Mrs X application for two years and five months, and failed to tell her of the outcome for a further ten months. The Council will make a symbolic payment to Mrs X to remedy the distress and frustration this caused her and consider if she missed out on a suitable property.

The complaint

1. Mrs X complained the Council delayed considering her application to join the Council’s housing register for over three years, during which time she was unable to bid for a Council property. Mrs X said this caused her and her family distress as they remained in a severely overcrowded property. Mrs X wanted the Council to consider her application, allow her to bid for Council properties and provide a financial payment for the distress she and her family had been caused.

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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 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)
3. We may investigate matters coming to our attention during an investigation, if we consider that a member of the public who has not complained may have suffered an injustice as a result. (Local Government Act 1974, section 26D and 34E, as amended)
4. 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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What I have and have not investigated

5. Mrs X complained about matters that began in 2021 which is a late complaint. Late complaints are when someone takes more than 12 months to complain to us about something a council has done. We cannot investigate late complaints unless we decide there are good reasons. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 26B and 34D, as amended).
6. I have investigated from November 2021 onwards, when Mrs X submitted her application to the Council. There is good reason to investigate that complaint now as there is continuing fault and injustice stemming from events in November 2021.

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How I considered this complaint

7. I considered evidence provided by Mrs X and the Council as well as relevant law, policy and guidance.
8. Mrs X and the Council 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

Relevant legislation and guidance

9. 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))
10. 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))

Southwark’s housing allocations policy

11. The Council operates a choice-based lettings scheme which enables housing applicants to bid for available properties which it advertises.
12. The Council considers applications to join the scheme and awards successful applicants a Band between 1 and 4. Band 1 applicants have the highest priority with Band 4 the lowest. The Council also awards priority points in certain circumstances such as where people need to move on severe medical grounds, it is a working household or applicants are volunteering in the community.
13. The Council’s policy states it intends to process applications to join the scheme within 28 days. In some circumstances it will backdate the award date to the date of application.

What happened

14. Mrs X applied to join the Council’s housing register in 2021. In her application Mrs X stated she was applying for a property for her, her partner and three children. At the time Mrs X’s family was living in a two-bedroom property. Mrs X’s 11-year-old child was sharing a room with Mrs X and her partner.
15. The Council asked Mrs X for relevant documents to support her housing application in September 2022. Mrs X provided those documents to the Council in November 2022.
16. Mrs X complained to the Council in March 2023. She said she had been waiting for a bidding number since November 2022.
17. The Council responded the following month and apologised for the delay. It said it had received Mrs X’s application and documents but had not been able to process them due to a staff shortage. It said it had allocated Mrs X’s case to an officer and it would be in contact again soon.
18. Mrs X complained to the Council again in December 2023 and asked the Council to consider her complaint further. She said she had still not received anything from the Council. Mrs X asked for a bidding number and compensation for the delay she had experienced.
19. The Council responded in January 2024 and said it was unable to assess Mrs X’s application until she had provided some further documentation. It partially upheld Mrs X’s complaint. Mrs X provided the documentation.
20. Case notes show that in May 2024 the case officer decided all Mrs X’s documents had been received and her application had been made active, meaning she could bid on properties.
21. Mrs X’s MP contacted the Council about the delay in Mrs X’s case in June. The Council responded to the MP and apologised for the delay. It said that Mrs X’s account was now active, it had awarded Band 3 due to overcrowding and provided Mrs X’s bidding number.
22. Mrs X remained dissatisfied and complained to us in July 2024. She said that she had still not received a bidding number and her and her family remained in an overcrowded property.

Further information

23. In response to my enquiries the Council stated that, due to human error, it had not told Mrs X the outcome of her application. The Council sent Mrs X the letter at the beginning of March 2025. The letter said Mrs X’s application was now active. It said it had awarded Band 3 with overcrowding priority and that Mrs X could bid for 4-bedroom properties. It provided Mrs X’s bidding number.
24. The Council said it had reviewed its records between November 2021 and May 2024 to see if Mrs X had missed the opportunity to successfully bid on a property. It found that Mrs X had not missed an opportunity during that period. It said it had backdated Mrs X’s application to November 2021 when she first submitted her application.
25. The Council said it would upgrade its IT system with a new allocations scheme once it had been approved and would consider the feasibility of the initial registration letters on applications to be sent automatically.

Others affected and action taken

26. In a separate investigation the Council told us in February 2024 the backlog of people waiting for it to consider their housing application was 3,541.
27. In March 2025 the Council confirmed there were 1,070 people who had been waiting for more than six months for the Council to consider their housing application. There were a further 1,350 people waiting for more than 12 months.
28. The Council said it had recruited additional officers to assist in reducing the backlog of applications. It had also implemented a new housing complaints team which allowed the housing applications team to focus on processing applications instead of investigating complaints.

My findings

29. The Council should have considered Mrs X’s application within 28 days of receiving it in November 2021, in line with its allocation policy, and informed her of the outcome. The Council did not properly consider the application until May 2024 which is a delay of two years and five months and is fault. The Council has already provided an explanation and apology to Mrs X and has backdated the date of her banding award to November 2021 which are all suitable actions.
30. The Council did not tell Mrs X of its decision she was eligible for a housing allocation or how she could bid for properties until March 2025. The Council states this was due to human error and there is no reason to discount that explanation. That was also fault and an additional delay of ten months. The Council is exploring the possibility of sending the outcome letters automatically.
31. The cumulative delay has caused Mrs X distress, uncertainty and frustration for a total of three years and three months and prevented her bidding for suitable properties for her family. I have made a recommendation to remedy the injustice caused to Mrs X below.
32. The Council has established the family did not miss out on a property between November 2021 and May 2024. However, I cannot say if Mrs X and her family were caused any additional injustice as I cannot know if they missed out on a suitable property between May 2024 and March 2025. I have made a recommendation below for the Council to consider this matter.

Others affected

33. In March 2025 the Council identified 2,420 other people who have also been affected by the delay identified in this investigation. The Council has set out the action it has already taken to reduce the backlog of housing applications, and the evidence shows these actions had reduced the backlog by 1,121 in a little over 12 months. These are appropriate actions to prevent others being affected by the delays Mrs X experienced and so I have not made any further service improvement recommendation. We will continue to monitor this through our case work.

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Action

34. Within one month of this decision the Council will:
• Write to Mrs X and apologise for the additional injustice caused to her by its failure to send her its decision letter and bidding information;
• Pay Mrs X a symbolic amount of £1,000 to recognise the injustice she was caused over a three year and three-month period; and
• Consider if Mrs X missed out on successfully bidding on a suitable Council property between May 2024 and March 2025. The Council will write to Mrs X and tell her the outcome and, if she had missed out on a suitable property, it will make a direct offer of the next suitable property.
35. We publish guidance on remedies which sets out our expectations for how organisations should apologise effectively to remedy injustice. The Council will consider this guidance in making the apology I have recommended.
36. The Council will provide us with evidence it has complied with the above actions.

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Decision

I found fault causing injustice and the Council agreed to my recommendations to remedy that injustice.

Investigator’s decision on behalf of the Ombudsman

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman