The Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman has written to the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, the Right Honourable Steve Reed MP OBE highlighting concerns about Leicester City Council.

The council has objected to being held accountable after failing to provide a homeless family with suitable accommodation.

The Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) can step in when the government has concerns about how a local authority is run. It uses information from Ombudsman investigations alongside other information to understand how each local authority in England is performing.

The original report, published in October last year, detailed how a woman and her children escaped domestic abuse and asked Leicester City Council for help with housing.

The Ombudsman upheld the family’s complaint and recommended the council pay a financial remedy to the family and improve its services. The council agreed to make some changes but refused to pay most of the financial remedy.

Ms Amerdeep Somal, Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman said:

“It is incredibly rare for local councils not to accept our recommendations and so we do not take the decision to write to the Secretary of State with our concerns lightly.

“The council appears to be rejecting our findings because it does not believe it should be accountable for leaving a homeless family in bed and breakfast accommodation for longer than the law allows because of a wider housing crisis. The law was made to protect homeless families from being left in unsuitable accommodation for prolonged periods. We cannot hold the council to a lower or different threshold. Many other councils face similar challenges and agree to our recommendations, acknowledging the impact unsuitable accommodation has on homeless households.

“Each investigation we carry out is based on the individual complaint’s unique circumstances. The remedy we recommend in one case would not necessarily be applicable to others.

“The mother has told me the extra stress of living in unsuitable housing has badly affected both her mental and physical health. Leicester’s refusal to make the payments we recommended means the family has not received any proper recognition of what they have been through. This has only added to the upset she continues to feel.

“I would urge senior councillors in Leicester to revisit the report with a fresh perspective when they discuss it at the next meeting and put in place all the remedies we have recommended.”

The Ombudsman’s investigation found the council did not help properly or act quickly enough when the family approached it for help. The family was placed in a refuge which negatively affected the children’s health conditions and was too far away from their support network. The council later placed them in unsuitable bed and breakfast accommodation as temporary accommodation. However it failed to tell the family it owed an ongoing duty to house them, or about rights to challenge the suitability of the accommodation through the courts.

The council agreed to make improvements to its systems and processes following the initial report.

However, it has not agreed to make a symbolic payment of £1,300 for the distress caused to the family by living in unsuitable B&B accommodation for 13 weeks longer than they should have done, or pay them £150 a month for every month they remain in unsuitable temporary accommodation.

Article date: 10 September 2025