Summary: We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint about the Council’s homelessness application review decision. This is because Mr X had a right of appeal to the County Court and it is reasonable to expect him to have appealed. I have also not seen enough evidence of significant injustice to justify investigating the time the Council took to make its review decision.

The complaint

1. Mr X complains about the Council’s homelessness application review decision. He said the decision is flawed and the Council did not take his evidence and circumstances properly into account.
2. He would like the Council to re-open his case so he can submit further information.
3. Mr X also said the Council delayed responding to his review request. He said the delay worsened his mental health.

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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 any injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))
5. The law says we cannot normally investigate a complaint when someone could take the matter to court. However, we may decide to investigate if we consider it would be unreasonable to expect the person to go to court. (Local Government Act 1974, section 26(6)(c), as amended)

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How I considered this complaint

6. I considered information provided by Mr X and the Council.
7. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

8. Mr X complains about the Council’s review decision.
9. However, Mr X could have appealed to the County Court if he disagreed with the Council’s decision, and I consider it reasonable to expect him to have done so.
10. Mr X also says the Council delayed responding to his review request.
11. Council’s typically take up to 8 weeks to review a homelessness application decision. Mr X submitted his review request in June 2025, and the Council replied in September.
12. However, I do not consider this to be such a significant injustice to Mr X that it justifies a further investigation by us.

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Final decision

13. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because he could have appealed to the County Court against the Council’s decision on his homelessness application. I also do not consider that he suffered a significant injustice from the Council’s relatively short delay in completing the review of its decision that justifies an investigation.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman