Summary: We have upheld this complaint about delays in carrying out housing reviews. The Council has agreed to resolve this complaint early by demonstrating that it is carrying out service improvements to prevent recurrence of the fault in future.

The complaint

1. Ms X complains the Council:
1. significantly delayed responding to her requests for reviews of its housing decisions; and
2. wrongly decided she did not qualify to join the housing register.
2. Ms X said as a result she has wrongly been excluded from the housing register and been caused frustration and distress. Ms X wants the Council to review her application again.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

3. We may decide not to start or continue with an investigation if we are satisfied with the actions an organisation has taken or proposes to take. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(7), as amended)

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How I considered this complaint

4. I considered information provided by the complainant and the Council.
5. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

Camden’s allocations policy

6. This Council requires that any applicant who wants to join the housing register must have lived in Camden for five out of the past seven years.
7. There are exemptions to this set out in section 2.2.6 of the allocations policy, including where an applicant is “fleeing violence and harassment and it would be unsafe for (them) to remain where (they) live”.
8. Ms X applied to join this Council’s housing register in 2023 and said she needed to move because her current accommodation was not suitable for her medical needs and she had experienced domestic abuse.
9. The Council decided she did not qualify to join the housing register. Ms X requested a review of that decision. The Council carried out a review but it took more than eight months to do so and accepted through a later complaints process, that this review contained errors. The Council apologised for this and as a remedy, agreed to carry out another review.
10. The Council carried out its further review in May 2025. It considered her medical evidence and other information but said it could not consider these further, as she did not meet the residency requirements. It said Ms X had not lived in Camden for five out of the past seven years and so her application was refused.
11. The Council explained that the exemption to residency requirements at 2.2.6 of its allocations policy did not apply in her case, because she fled domestic abuse from one area (that was not Camden) into another area (that was not Camden). It explained that its exemption criteria is for people who have fled Camden to escape this type of abuse.
12. I am satisfied with the action the Council took to remedy the personal injustice caused to Ms X in this case. It apologised for its errors in the earlier review and agreed to carry out a fresh review. The second review clearly explained its reasons for its decision and it made this in line with its allocations policy so we cannot be critical of it. As the Council has taken sufficient action to remedy the injustice caused to Ms X, we will not investigate this part of the complaint further.
13. However this investigation identified that the Council has a backlog of delayed housing reviews. If we were to investigate further it is likely we would find this has caused injustice caused to other applicants. We therefore asked the Council to consider remedying this wider injustice by reporting back to us on the scale of the backlog and setting out what action it is taking to reduce this. The Council agreed to do this. So far, it confirmed it has recruited additional staff and aims to clear the backlog by the end of this year.

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Agreed action

14. Within one month of the date of the final decision, the Council has agreed to:
1. Provide the Ombudsman with an update on the scale of the backlog; and
2. Set out what action the Council is taking to reduce this backlog and update on the progress that is being made.

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Final decision

15. We have upheld the complaint about the delays in carrying out housing reviews because the Council has agreed to resolve the complaint early by making service improvements.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman