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. Miss X complained about the Council’s assessment of her housing application. She was assessed as Band D in 2025 and asked for a review. She was awarded Band C medium priority but she believes her son’s medical needs warrant a higher priority.

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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)

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How I considered this complaint

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

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My assessment

5. Miss X says she had Band D low priority awarded when she applied to the Council’s housing register. In August 2025 she asked for a review of her application and the Council’s Housing Panel decided that because of her son’s mental health needs it would award Band C to allow her to relocate away from her current area.
6. Miss X was dissatisfied with the outcome and asked for a further review. S.166A of the Housing Act 1996 allows applicants to ask for a review at any time if they have new information or changes of circumstances that affect their priority. The Council told Miss X that it could only consider a medical review of her family’s needs if she provided detailed evidence of her son’s or her own medical needs which was more recent than the previous review decision, otherwise her banding would remain the same.
7. The Ombudsman is not an appeal body. This means we do not take a second look at a decision to decide if it was wrong. Instead, we look at the processes an organisation followed to make its decision. If we consider it followed those processes correctly, we cannot question whether the decision was right or wrong, regardless of whether someone disagrees with the decision the organisation made.
8. 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. I can see no evidence to suggest that the Council has not followed the allocations policy when assessing Miss X’s application.

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Final decision

9. 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

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman