Summary: The Ombudsman will not investigate Miss X’s complaint about the Council’s refusal to make a direct offer of housing and the condition of her current temporary accommodation. This is because we would be unlikely to find fault and an investigation would be unlikely to lead to a different outcome.

The complaint

1. Miss X complains about the Council’s refusal to make a direct offer of housing and the condition of her current temporary accommodation. She says the Council has not considered the time she has spent in temporary accommodation, the condition of the accommodation or the effects this has had on her. She says her current accommodation had outstanding repairs which the Council took too long to resolve. She wants the Council to offer her a permanent home.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. We investigate complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’. In this statement, I have used the word ‘fault’ to refer to these. We must also consider whether any fault has had an adverse impact on the person making the complaint. I refer to this as ‘injustice’. We provide a free service, but must use public money carefully. We may decide not to start or continue with an investigation if we believe it is unlikely we would find fault or it is unlikely further investigation will lead to a different outcome. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended)

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How I considered this complaint

3. I considered the information provided by Miss X in her complaint and the Council’s responses to her. I also spoke to Miss X about her complaint.
4. I sent a copy of my draft decision to Miss X. I considered her comments before making a final decision.

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What I found

Background

5. Miss X applied as homeless in 2004 and has lived in temporary accommodation provided by the Council since.
6. Miss X complained to the Council and the Ombudsman about the time she has spent in temporary accommodation and the Council’s refusal to make a direct offer of accommodation in 2019.
7. On moving into her current property, Miss X says there were several outstanding repairs which she says the Council took too long to resolve. Miss X raised some issues with the Council in early 2019, shortly after she moved in. She told the Council about problems again in December 2019 and says the Council took too long to resolve them.
8. The Council says it alerted Miss X’s landlord about the issues shortly after she told it about them in January and December 2019. The Council says it did not receive any reports of disrepair between January and December 2019; An environmental health officer from the Council inspected the property in March 2020 and found there was no significant disrepair but there were some problems which still needed to be addressed.
9. The Council told the agent for the property to complete the repairs. However, the repairs were delayed due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Miss X tells me the outstanding repairs have now been completed.
10. The Council has accepted there were delays in responding to Miss X’s reports of disrepair in early 2020 due to staff changes in the Council’s housing team. The Council has apologised to Miss X for this. The Council has also said it will improve the communications it provides through its Temporary Accommodation Repairs team and explain better which repair issues it can address. However, the Council has refused to make a direct offer of housing in response to the disrepair issues.
11. Miss X also says she has provided the Council with new medical evidence relevant to her housing needs which she says the Council has ignored. She says the Council should increase her priority based on this new evidence.
12. The Council’s housing allocation policy says that it will only reassess points for health reasons if the evidence shows that a resident’s health problems have changed significantly.

Analysis

13. The Ombudsman previously considered and decided Miss X’s complaint about the Council’s refusal to make her a direct offer of housing. We will not consider this part of Miss X’s complaint again.
14. The evidence shows the Council responded promptly to most of Miss X’s reports of problems in her property. Its Environmental Health team has inspected the property and instructed the property agent to do the repairs. It has apologised to Miss X for the delays in responding to her reports in early 2020.
15. The outstanding repairs have now been completed and the delays due to the Covid-19 pandemic were outside the Councils control.
16. The Council last assessed Miss X’s housing priority in 2018 and the Ombudsman considered this in Miss X’s 2019 complaint. While Miss X has new medical evidence it does not meet the requirements in the Council’s policy for a reassessment. So, we would be unlikely to find fault with the Council’s decision not to reassess Miss X’s priority at this stage. If further evidence becomes available when Miss X starts treatment, Miss X can send this to the Council for consideration.

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Final decision

17. The Ombudsman will not investigate this complaint. This is because we would be unlikely to find fault and an investigation would be unlikely to lead to a different outcome.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman