Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s assessment of a housing application and its management of temporary accommodation. There is insufficient evidence of fault causing injustice which would warrant an investigation.

The complaint

1. Miss X complained that the Council’s stage 1 response to a complaint she made was incorrect. It lacked any compensation amount, and a corrected letter was never sent despite Miss X’s claim that an officer told her it would be. Miss X complained that, upon escalation to stage 2 that the stage 2 response she received was based on incorrect information. Miss X says that she feels unhappy with the way that the stage 1 officer has communicated with her.

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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
• any injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement, or
• further investigation would not lead to a different outcome.

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

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How I considered this complaint

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

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My assessment

5. Miss X made a complaint to the Council in September 2025 about the delay in processing her medical review for her housing application and about safety concerns in her temporary accommodation which she believed needed a risk assessment.
6. Her complaint was addressed at Stage 1 and she believed the officer conducting it was rude to her in conversation and told her that she would be awarded compensation for the Council’s delays. The Council’s Stage 1 response does not mention compensation in any form, although it upholds her concerns about delay and security and apologises for this with a recommendation that the concerns be addressed by action.
7. Miss X made a Stage 2 escalation and asked for the compensation issue to be addressed. The Stage 2 reviewer confirmed that no compensation was agreed and that her medical review had been completed without any change to her priority. She was referred to our services in the letter.
8. The Council has taken the relevant steps to handle Miss X's complaint and there was no compensation to be paid. Therefore, as there is insufficient evidence of fault causing an injustice, the Ombudsman is unlikely to reach a different outcome. Miss X submitted another stage 1 complaint shortly before the Stage 2 was issued and this is the subject of a further complaint to us. She has raised the matter of compensation in the new complaint.

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Final decision

9. We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s assessment of a housing application and its management of temporary accommodation. There is insufficient evidence of fault causing any significant injustice which would warrant an investigation.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman