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 says she accepted her current housing in 2023 but she wants to move top another area and she does not have sufficient priority for vacancies due to the demand on the waiting list.

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. I have also considered the Council’s housing allocations scheme.
4. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

Back to top

My assessment

5. Miss X says she needs higher priority for her housing application because there are up to 500 applicants ahead of her when she bids on a vacancy. She was offered her current home from the housing register in 2023 and under the 1-offer policy she had to accept it. She says she is unhappy in her current location and is overcrowded, she wants to be allocated a new-build property in another area.
6. The Council says she is correctly prioritised in band B for her current housing situation under the allocations policy. It cannot tell her that she will be offered a new home because it does not shortlist applicants but allocates on priority banding and in date order when there is more than one applicant with the same priority.
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. We may not find fault with a council’s assessment of a housing application or 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.

Back to top

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.

Back to top

Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman