Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s failure to inform Miss X about changes to the Right to Buy discount implemented by the government in 2024. There is insufficient evidence of fault which would warrant an investigation.

The complaint

1. Miss X complained about the Council failing to inform her of proposed changes to the Right to Buy discount for her council home. She applied to buy her home in January 2025 and was informed that the discount rates had been lowered in November 2024. She says the Council should have told her about the changes in advance so that she could apply at the old rates.

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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)

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How I considered this complaint

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

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My assessment

5. Miss X says that she originally applied to buy her council home in 202) but she could not proceed due to changes in circumstances. In January 2025 she applied again but was told that the discount rate shad changed in November making her new application unaffordable. She says the Council should have notified her about the upcoming changes so that she could buy at the old rates.
6. The Council says the change in discount was announced unexpectedly in the government’s autumn budget of October 2024. The changes were introduced within 3 weeks of the budget statement and the formal changes in government guidance were not issued until 6 December. This gave councils little time to respond to the changes or make policy adjustments to their websites or notify existing purchasers.
7. The changes were widely covered by the media at the time leading to a surge in applications in the weeks following the statement and before implementation. Miss X told the Council that she was not aware of the changes until January and says it should allow her to purchase at the older more generous rates.
8. The discount changes were a result of government policy reviews and the Council could not be reasonably expected to give advance notice or to react within the short time after the decision. There is no discretion for councils to vary the discount amounts which are set by central government. The changes were already in force when Miss X submitted her application over 2 months later
9. 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.

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Final decision

10. We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s failure to inform Miss X about changes to the Right to Buy discount implemented by the government in 2024. There is insufficient evidence of fault which would warrant an investigation.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman