Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about a priority social housing application. There is not enough evidence of fault in the Council’s decision making.

The complaint

1. Miss X complains the Council refused to award her the highest priority band on the housing register, despite her family’s medical needs. Miss X says the decision leaves her family in unsuitable and unsafe accommodation and wants the Council to reconsider its decision.
2. Miss X also complains about delays in the Council’s complaints handling.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

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

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How I considered this complaint

4. I considered information provided by Miss X.
5. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

6. The Council’s housing allocations policy gives it discretion to award the highest priority band in exceptional circumstances, even if an applicant may not otherwise meet the band criteria. Miss X applied for the Council to apply its discretion in her case.
7. The Council considered Miss X’s circumstances and decided not to apply discretion. Miss X appealed and the Council upheld the decision. 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. Where a council acts in line with an agreed policy which has been properly determined we have no powers to intervene. That appears to be the case here. So, we will not investigate the Council’s decision.
8. It is not a good use of public resources to investigate complaints about complaint procedures, if we decide not to investigate the substantive issue.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman