The Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman has taken the unusual step of issuing a further report against South Kesteven District Council for it refusing to pay a remedy to a man who asked for homelessness support.

The Ombudsman found that the council failed to properly consider whether it had a duty to provide the man with accommodation while it processed his homelessness application in early 2024. Despite the man telling the council he had been admitted to hospital and that medical staff believed his housing situation was affecting his health, the council did not demonstrate that it considered the correct legal tests when deciding whether it should offer him interim accommodation.

The law sets a deliberately low bar for councils to provide accommodation whilst considering whether to provide long term housing to an individual. Councils only need to have reason to believe someone may be homeless, eligible and vulnerable. The Ombudsman found evidence South Kesteven consistently applied a much stricter test and also failed to revisit its decision when it received new information about the man’s health conditions and welfare.

In its original report, published in August 2025, the Ombudsman made a number of recommendations to the council. The council has since complied with only two of them and has refused to: apologise to the man, pay him a combined financial remedy of £1,175 for the distress caused and remind its homelessness staff of the correct legal test for interim accommodation

Amerdeep Clarke, Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman said:

“The duty to provide interim accommodation exists precisely to protect people in situations like the one this man found himself in. The threshold is deliberately low, and councils must apply it correctly.

“The council has told us the correct test was applied but was not recorded properly due to an error in writing rather than consideration. The public have a right to expect public bodies to keep accurate records about them. Accurate record keeping is central to good administrative practice and transparent decision making.

“In this case, not only did South Kesteven District Council leave a vulnerable man sleeping rough when it should have housed him, it has now refused to properly remedy that injustice.

“We do not issue further reports lightly and I would urge the council to reconsider its position and comply with our recommendations.”

Article date: 02 April 2026