Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about housing allocations because there is not enough evidence of fault to justify investigating.

The complaint

1. Miss Y complained the Council has wrongly refused her application to join its housing register. Miss Y says this has caused her significant distress as she feels her situation is worse than it was previously when she had been accepted onto the register.

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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)
3. We investigate 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 continue 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

4. I considered information Miss Y provided and the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

5. Miss Y successfully applied to go on the Council’s housing register in March 2023.
6. In April 2024, a new housing allocation scheme came into force in the Council’s area. A housing allocation scheme sets out who is eligible to be considered for housing by the Council, how their housing needs will be assessed and how applications should be prioritised. With the introduction of the new scheme, the Council asked all applicants, including Miss Y, to reapply to go on the Council’s housing register.
7. Under the new housing allocations policy, which is available on the Council’s website, an applicant who has no assessed housing needs will not qualify to join the scheme (housing register). A person will have no assessed housing need if their circumstances are not included within the Council’s priority bands, as set out in the housing allocations policy. A person who is not at risk of homelessness, harm or abuse and living in a property which is suitable for their health, will not have met any of the priority bands and will be assessed as having no housing need.
8. Miss Y’s new application was then assessed and the Council decided she did not qualify to join the scheme as she did not have an assessed housing need, as explained above. She asked the Council to review the decision, which it did, but the decision was unchanged. She then approached us.
9. The Ombudsman may not find fault with the Council’s assessment of a housing application if it has carried out the assessment in accordance with its published allocations scheme. In this case, the Council has assessed Miss Y’s application under its new policy, which sets out different terms from that she was previously assessed under.
10. Under the new policy the Council has found she does not meet the criteria to be placed on the housing scheme based on her circumstances. It has been able to explain its rationale to her and has considered the evidence Miss Y provided in her application. As there is not enough evidence of fault in the decision-making process, even where the decision under the new policy is different to that previously given, there is not enough evidence of fault to justify our investigation. We will not investigate.

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Final decision

11. We will not investigate Miss Y’s complaint because there is not enough evidence of fault to justify investigating.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman