Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about housing allocations because further investigation would not lead to a different outcome, achieve a worthwhile outcome or the outcome Miss Y is seeking.

The complaint

1. Miss Y complained the Council has failed:
• to provide her with permanent accommodation after spending six years in temporary accommodation and a year in its highest priority banding for housing allocations;
• to consider a letter from her child’s specialist;
• to help her when she was threatened with eviction in September 2023;
• to advise her on benefits she may be able to receive, such as discretionary housing benefit.
2. Miss Y also complains the Council asked her to pay her previous rent arrears, which she disputes owing, in order to be able to be re-housed, but continued to block her application once she had paid this.
3. Miss Y says this has caused her and her family upset and worry and she had to borrow £1,000 at a high interest rate. Miss Y says she is now seeking stability and compensation for the money she has had to pay in interest due to the Council’s requirement to repay the arrears.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

4. 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:

• further investigation would not lead to a different outcome, or
• we cannot achieve the outcome someone wants, or
• there is no worthwhile outcome achievable by our investigation.

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

5. It is not a good use of public resources to investigate complaints about complaint procedures, if we are unable to deal with the substantive issue.

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How I considered this complaint

6. I considered information Miss Y provided and the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

7. Miss Y says she had to use a high interest rate lender to borrow the £1,000 owed in rental arrears before she could be considered for permanent accommodation. The payment of the rental arrears is in line with the Council’s policy, that such arrears must be paid before permanent accommodation can be allocated. While it is unfortunate that Miss Y had to borrow the money, it is not due to any fault by the Council that she needed to use a high interest rate lender and now needs to pay interest as well as the loan repayments. The cost of the loan is not a remedy we would recommend, even if we were to find fault. As this is not a remedy we would recommend, investigation would not alter the outcome of the complaint which already exists in this respect. We are therefore unable to provide Miss Y with the remedy she is seeking.
8. Miss Y is also seeking a remedy of being re-housed and the stability of permanent accommodation. If we were to investigate and find fault causing injustice, we would seek to make a recommendation which would put Miss Y back into the position she would have been in, had any alleged fault have not occurred. However, we cannot recommend that Miss Y be placed higher up in priority than the banding she is currently in, which is the highest band in the Council’s allocations scheme. It is recognised that there is a significant demand on Council’s to provide housing, and a shortage of supply to meet this demand. Consequently, as we would not recommend any increase in her priority as she is already at the highest level available, we would not be able to alter this outcome and no worthwhile outcome can be achieved through investigation. Again, we are unable to provide Miss Y with the remedy she is seeking from our investigation. Consequently, we will not investigate.
9. As we are not investigating the substantive issue, it is not a good use of public resources to investigate how the Council responded to the complaint, so we will not investigate the Council’s complaint handling and response.

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Final decision

10. We will not investigate Miss Y’s complaint because further investigation would not lead to a different outcome, achieve a worthwhile outcome or the outcome Miss Y is seeking.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman