Summary: We will not investigate Ms X’s complaint about the Council’s handling of her homelessness application because there is insufficient evidence of fault to justify this. We will not investigate her complaint about its handling of her housing register application because the Council has taken appropriate action to remedy any injustice and further investigation by us would not lead to a different outcome.

The complaint

1. Ms X complained she has been in temporary accommodation for nine years and the Council has not rehoused her. She also said the temporary accommodation for the first six years was unsuitable.
2. Ms X also complained that she has been on the housing register for nine years but has not been able to bid successfully for social housing, despite being in band B since 2021. She said the Council had made direct offers to other applicants putting them ahead of her.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

3. 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

4. I considered information provided by Ms X.
5. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

Homelessness

6. The Council accepted a main housing duty to Ms X and has provided temporary accommodation. We previously considered a complaint about the Council’s delay in moving her to suitable alternative temporary accommodation after deciding the initial accommodation was unsuitable and provided a remedy for the injustice caused. We are aware that, due to a national shortage of housing, homeless applicants are staying in temporary accommodation for long periods of time, particularly if they are seeking social housing. That, on its own, does not indicate a council is at fault. We will not investigate this complaint further because there is insufficient evidence of fault

Housing register

7. The Council accepted a housing register application in 2016, placed it in band C, and said the household needed three bedrooms. The bedroom need changed to four bedrooms in January 2023, due to the age of one of Ms X’s children.
8. Changes were made to the Council’s allocations scheme, effective from September 2023. Under the new scheme, the number of bedrooms the household needed reduced back to three bedrooms. However, the application was moved to band B with effect from January 2021, to reflect they had been on the housing register for five years.
9. The Council’s decisions about priority band and bedroom need were in line with the allocations scheme, effective at the time of the decision.
10. The law says Councils must allocate social housing in line with the published allocations scheme. Ms X said the Council was not doing this. In its complaint response, the Council considered a number of specific property offers Ms X had raised and explained that each of them were direct offers made to applicants with higher priority on its housing register. There was one exception to this, where the property was wrongly allocated to an applicant with a later priority date. To rectify the mistake, the Council said it would make one direct offer to Ms X. This means it will identify a property that meets the household’s needs and offer it to Ms X outside the usual bidding process. However, it cannot say how long it would take to identify a suitable property. We will not investigate this part of the complaint further because the Council has taken appropriate steps to remedy any injustice to Ms X and further investigation would not lead to a different outcome.

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Final decision

11. We will not investigate Ms X’s complaint about the Council’s handling of her homelessness application because there is insufficient evidence of fault since the previous complaint to us to justify our involvement. We will not investigate her complaint about the Council’s operation of the housing register because it has already taken steps to remedy any injustice caused and further investigation by us would not lead to a different outcome.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman