Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s failure to properly deal with a complaint about a housing matter. This is because the Council has agreed to conclude its stage one complaint handling procedures in line with our recommendations and an investigation at this stage would not be proportionate.    

The complaint

1. X says the Council has failed to resolve their concerns about a housing allocations matter. X says the Council has failed to consider their complaint in line with its complaint handling procedures, and this has caused X distress.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. The law says we cannot normally investigate a complaint unless we are satisfied the organisation knows about the complaint and has had an opportunity to investigate and reply. However, we may decide to investigate if we consider it would be unreasonable to notify the organisation of the complaint and give it an opportunity to investigate and reply. (Local Government Act 1974, section 26(5), section 34(B)6)
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)

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How I considered this complaint

4. I considered information provided by the complainant and the Council.
5. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
6. I have only considered how the Council handled X’s complaint. I have not considered the main issues X has complained about.

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My assessment

7. X raised their initial complaint with the Council in February 2026. The Council’s corporate complaints procedure states the Council should provide a response within 20 working days. By June 2026, the Council had not completed stage one of its complaint procedure.

We wrote to the Council saying if we were to investigate, it is likely we would find fault causing X an injustice because of delays in the Council’s handling of the housing allocations complaint.

Agreed action 

8. We agreed with the Council it would finalise its stage one complaint reply within 10 working days of the date of my decision. At that point, it would notify X of their right to escalate their complaint to the second stage of the Council’s complaints procedure if necessary.   
9. The Council has agreed to resolve this part of X’s complaint, and it is then open to X to escalate to the Council’s stage two complaint procedure if they are unhappy with the Council’s initial response.    

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Final decision

10. We will not investigate X’s complaint because we have upheld a complaint about complaint handling fault and the Council has agreed to provide a response by a set date.  

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman