Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s decision to change in its housing allocations policy in 2024. There is insufficient evidence of fault which would warrant an investigation.

The complaint

1. Mr X complained about the Council’s decision to change its housing allocations policy which involves the removal of time-on-list points for existing applicants. He says he has been on the housing register for 14 years and that he will lose the points he has built up in this time and will be removed from the housing register. He says the decision failed to follow due process and consulting before the changes were approved.

Back to top

The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. 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, or
• we could not add to any previous investigation by the organisation, or
• further investigation would not lead to a different outcome.

(Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))

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. Mr X says the Council changed its housing allocations policy in January 2025 without proper consultation or proper consideration by Cabinet members who approved the changes. He says he will lose his time on list points built up over 14 years as a result of the decisions and be removed from the housing register. He says the implications of the change in policy were not fully considered at the time and a Cabinet member has since told him that they were unaware of the implications of the proposals.
6. The Council introduced a new allocations policy proposal by Cabinet decision in 2024. Following this the Council carried out a consultation exercise with applicants already on the housing register in September-October 2024. The scheme as subsequently approved in January 2025.
7. Mr X says he has spoken to a former member of the Cabinet and that she told him she was unaware of the implications of the policy on applicants like him who lose time on the register points in the new policy. This is not evidence of any fault by the Council. The Cabinet Members received details of the policy and they are expected to be conversant with the terms and implications of a policy before they vote on it.
8. The concerned with process. We are not a court of appeal. If there has been no flaw in the process through which a decision has been taken we have no power to challenge whether a decision is right or wrong.
9. Councils are expected to review and update their housing allocations policies under the Localism Act 2011. And this is what the Council did in 2024. It made it clear that there may be some negative implications for existing applicants but there were reasons why the duty to other applicants had to be prioritised. Mr X was made aware of this when the consultation process was carried out.

Back to top

Final decision

10. We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s decision to change in its housing allocations policy in 2024. There is insufficient evidence of fault which would warrant an investigation.

Back to top

Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman