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. Mrs X complained about the Council’s assessment of her housing application priority. She believes that she should be in Band A or B but she is currently placed in Band C. she also says her family needs should make her eligible to bid for 4-bedroom vacancies.

Back to top

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)

Back to top

How I considered this complaint

3. I considered information provided by the complainant and the Council’s responses. I have also considered the Council’s housing allocations policy.
4. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

Back to top

My assessment

5. Mrs X says the Council has failed to place her housing application in the correct banding for her housing needs. She asked the Council to review her current priority of Band C and it did this in January 2025. The Council decided that her banding should remain in Band C because her medical needs were not sufficient to make meet the threshold for Band B under its allocations policy.
6. Mrs X says she should be allowed to bid on 4-bedroom vacancies because her current 2-bedroom social housing home is too small for her family’s needs. The Council says that she is not statutorily overcrowded and her children’s ages do not meet the criteria for separate bedrooms. It told her that she is eligible to bid on 3-bedroom homes or to seek a mutual exchange with another tenant.
7. 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. The Council has reviewed her case and unless she presents new information in future which may require a further review I have seen no evidence of fault which would suggest that Mrs X’s application should be placed in a higher banding.

Back to top

Final decision

8. 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.

Back to top

Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman