Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s handling of Miss X’s Right to Buy application for her Council home. There is insufficient evidence of fault which would warrant an investigation.

The complaint

1. Miss X complained about the Council’s refusal to accept her Right to Buy (RTB) application under the previous discount terms. It says she submitted it after the change in discount entitlement in 2024 and she believes it is acting unreasonably.

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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
• we could not add to any previous investigation by the organisation, 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’s responses.
4. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

5. Miss X says she posted her RTB application to the Council on 21 November 2024 which was the cut-off date for the introduction of new discount limitations on RTB applications. The Council says it received her application on 28 November and informed Miss X that it would not be entitled to the previous, more generous discount scheme.
6. She believes the Council acted unreasonably and did not take into account that she is a carer for elderly relatives.
7. The government introduced the changes suddenly by way of a statutory instrument which came into force on 31 October 2024. This gave the implementation of the changes as 21 November, which is less than the month given to councils to update published information about changes to the RTB process.
8. Miss X posted her application on 21 November but the statutory instrument states that the new discount maximum will apply from “on or after the date this instrument comes into force.” This was the same day Miss X posted her application and so the Council could not apply the previous discount rules without breaching the legislation.
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 handling of Miss X’s Right to Buy application for her Council home. There is insufficient evidence of fault which would warrant an investigation.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman