Summary: We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint about the Council’s decision to increase allotment rental fees by over 200 percent. The Council Members have recently voted to reverse the decision and replace it with a lower increase in line with inflation. There is insufficient ongoing significant personal injustice to Mr X to warrant us investigating.

The complaint

1. Mr X rents an allotment from the Council. He complains the Council:
1. raised his and all other allotment tenants’ rents by as much as 300 percent;
2. contravened the 1950 Allotment Act which requires rents to be reasonable;
3. gave insufficient notice of the rent rise to tenants;
4. failed to justify the level of the rent rise.
2. Mr X says his allotment rental costs would increase from £44 to £131 per year, despite his entitlement to a discount. If he cannot afford the higher rent, he will be unable to grow fruit and vegetables and is concerned about the impact not tending an allotment will have on his wellbeing. Mr X wants the Council to consider a reasonable rent rise in line with inflation.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

3. The Ombudsman investigates 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 may decide not to continue with an investigation if we decide:

• any injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement; or
• further investigation would not lead to a different outcome.

(Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6))

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How I considered this complaint

4. I considered information from Mr X, online news reports, the minutes from the Council’s 15 March 2023 meeting, and the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

5. At the time Mr X made his complaint, the Council had decided to raise his allotment fees by the sums set out above for the 2023/2024 rental year. Other tenants without Mr X’s discounted rate would have seen similar percentage increases at their higher rates.
6. Since we received Mr X’s complaint, the Council’s Members have voted on the allotment rent increases at a meeting on 15 March 2023. As part of a motion put before Members, they voted to reverse the originally planned increase in allotment rents within the 2023/2024 budget and replace it with an increase in line with inflation.
7. The 15 March decision removes the issue Mr X complained of, and with it any significant personal injustice to him. There is not enough ongoing significant personal injustice to Mr X to warrant us investigating, so we will not do so. The decision also provides Mr X the outcome he seeks, requiring the increased rent rate to be in line with inflation. Investigation would not result in any different outcome to that already reached.
8. It is now for the Council to recalculate and decide the allotment rents again. If Mr X is dissatisfied with the Council’s next rent levels, that would be a new complaint about a new Council decision. We could only consider such a complaint after the Council has considered or had suitable opportunity to consider it first.

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Final decision

9. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because:
• there is not enough ongoing significant personal injustice to Mr X to warrant us investigating; and
• investigation would not lead to a different outcome.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman