Summary: Ms X complains that the Council has not published any authority monitoring reports (AMR) for the past six years. There is fault by the Council because it has not met its statutory duty to produce these reports. The Council should now produce the report for the present year within three months of the Ombudsman’s decision on this complaint.

The complaint

1. Ms X complains that the Council has not published any authority monitoring reports (AMR) for the past six years.

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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’. If there has been fault which has caused an injustice, we may suggest a remedy. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 26(1) and 26A(1), as amended)
3. If we are satisfied with a council’s actions or proposed actions, we can complete our investigation and issue a decision statement. (Local Government Act 1974, section 30(1B) and 34H(i), as amended)

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How I considered this complaint

4. I considered the complaint and background information provided by Ms X and the Council. I sent an initial decision statement to Ms X and the Council and considered the comments of both parties on it.

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What I found

5. The Authority Monitoring Report (AMR) should be published each year reporting on the performance of a local planning authority’s planning policies. It is a means of reviewing a planning authority’s progress in meeting targets set in its local development plan and the success or failure of policies against key indicators and performance criteria. Publication of the AMR is a statutory requirement under the Localism Act 2011.
6. Ms X complains that the Council has not published any AMRs for the past six years. In response to her complaint and concerning non-publication for the present year, the Council says there are technical issues it has to resolve with a database held by the Greater London Authority (GLA). It did not explain why it did not publish the monitoring reports in previous years.
7. I find fault by the Council. I note its reason for not publishing the report is that there is an issue with the GLA database. However, I note other authorities within the London area that utilise the same database have published monitoring reports. I find there has been unreasonable delay by the Council in publishing the monitoring report.

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Recommended action

8. In its response to my draft decision, the Council said it would commit to publishing an interim AMR within the next three months which would cover the years between 2014/15 to 2018/19. It says the interim report would likely omit the five year housing supply and housing trajectory. It would also publish a final AMR report which would contain a five year housing supply and land trajectory and this would be done as soon as technically possible.
9. I note the Council’s intention to publish an interim and then a final report. The Ombudsman’s firm recommendation to the Council is that a final AMR is published within three months of the date of the Ombudsman’s decision on this complaint. Given the time taken to this point, I find this is a reasonable period of time for the Council to gather the necessary information it needs to enable publication. The Ombudsman will consider the appropriate steps to be taken if the Council does not publish the final AMR within the stated timescale.

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Final decision

10. There was fault by the Council because it did fulfil its statutory duty to publish an AMR annually for the past six years. This complaint is now closed because the Council agreed to publish the final AMR for this year as well as a report that partly covers preceding years.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman