Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about how the Council dealt with Miss X’s housing application. The Council has accepted that it overlooked information provided by Miss X and has agreed to backdate her housing banding.

The complaint

1. Miss X complained the Council did not properly consider her housing application, and didn’t award her an appropriate housing band. She said the Council did not carry out a risk assessment, and failed to support her. She said this has caused her financial hardship and has had a negative impact on her physical and mental health. She would like the Council to reassess her housing application banding and provide compensation.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. We cannot investigate complaints about the provision or management of social housing by a council acting as a registered social housing provider. (Local Government Act 1974, paragraph 5A schedule 5, as amended)
3. We investigate complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’. In this statement, I have used the word fault to refer to these. We provide a free service but must use public money carefully. 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)
4. We also 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

5. I considered information provided by Miss X and the Council.
6. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

7. Miss X complained the Council failed to support her through her reports of anti-social behaviour near her home.
8. We cannot investigate this part of Miss X’s complaint because we cannot investigate complaints about the provision or management of social housing by a council acting as a registered social housing provider.
9. Miss X also complained the Council did not properly consider her housing application, and did not award her the correct housing priority band on the housing register.
10. Miss X provided the Council with medical information in support of her housing application in December 2024 and July 2025. The Council reassessed Miss X’s housing application in July 2024 and moved her banding on the housing register to a higher priority band.
11. We are not an appeal body. It is not our role to say whether the Council’s decisions were correct. Councils have wide powers to design their allocation schemes to meet local needs, but the law says all councils must allocate social housing in line with their published allocations scheme.
12. The Ombudsman 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 the demand for social housing far outstrips the supply of properties in many areas.
13. However, if we were to investigate it is likely we would find fault causing the complainant injustice because Miss X’s housing application was not reassessed after she provided medical evidence in December 2024. This caused Miss X uncertainty.

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Agreed action

14. Within four weeks of the final decision, the Council will:

1. Write to Miss X and apologise for not reassessing her housing application after she provided medical information in December 2024.
2. Write to Miss X to inform her the Council has backdated her current housing application banding to December 2024, and explain the change in banding would not have made a material difference to her rehousing.

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Final decision

15. We will not investigate Miss X’s complaint because the Council has accepted that it overlooked information provided by Miss X and has agreed to backdate her housing application banding.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman