Summary: There was no fault in the way the Council determined Mr B’s housing priority, but it delayed assessing his application and reviewing its decision. The Council has agreed to make a payment to Mr B and backdate his housing priority. It has also agreed to make service improvements.

The complaint

1. Mr B complains that the Council has not given him sufficient priority on the housing register. He believes it has failed to properly consider the information he has provided about his family’s health and about disrepair in his home.
2. Mr B says that as a result of the Council’s failings, he remains living in unsuitable accommodation which is affecting his family’s health.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

3. We cannot investigate late complaints unless we decide there are good reasons. Late complaints are when someone takes more than 12 months to complain to us about something a council has done. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 26B and 34D, as amended)
4. 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 significant injustice, or that could cause injustice to others in the future we may suggest a remedy. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 26(1) and 26A(1), as amended)
5. We consider whether there was fault in the way an organisation made its decision. If there was no fault in how the organisation made its decision, we cannot question the outcome. (Local Government Act 1974, section 34(3), as amended)
6. If we are satisfied with an organisation’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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What I have and have not investigated

7. I have investigated matters relating to the Council’s decision to award Band B in June 2023, and its review of that decision in April 2024.
8. As explained in paragraph three of this statement, we cannot investigate late complaints unless there are good reasons why the complaint was not made to us sooner. I do not consider there are any good reasons to investigate earlier events.

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How I considered this complaint

9. I have:
• considered the complaint and the documents provided by the complainant;
• made enquiries of the Council and considered the comments and documents the Council has provided; and
• given the Council and the complainant the opportunity to comment on my draft decision.

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What I found

Housing allocations

10. The Council’s Housing Allocations Scheme sets out the rules for qualifying to join the Housing Register, how applicants are prioritised and how the Council manages the allocation of available properties.
11. The scheme introduced in January 2023 places applicants in a priority band from Band A (highest priority) to Band D (lowest priority). Band B includes applicants who need to move on medical grounds which are not life-threatening, and applicants living in insanitary and unsatisfactory housing conditions, where this has been verified by an Environmental Health Officer.
12. The previous scheme placed applicants in a priority band from Band 1 (highest priority) to Band 4 (lowest priority). It awarded Band 2 where an applicant’s medical or disability needs meant their housing was unsuitable and it awarded Band 3 where the applicant’s household was lacking one bedroom.
13. The Council uses the date the applicant first joined the housing register (registration date), or the date the applicant moved to a higher priority band (award date), to prioritise between applicants in the same band.
14. Applicants have the right to request a review of a council’s housing priority decision. Government guidance suggests eight weeks as a reasonable timescale for completing reviews.

Background and key events

15. Mr B lives with his wife and three children in a two-bedroom privately rented property. He says the accommodation has a lot of damp and mould which is affecting his family’s health.
16. Mr B applied to join the Council’s housing register. In December 2022, Mr B was awarded Band 3 for overcrowding because his family was lacking one bedroom.
17. The Council assessed Mr B’s application again in June 2023 after Mr B provided further medical evidence. It decided to increase his priority to Band B.
18. Mr B requested a review of the Council’s decision. He said that he considered he met the criteria for a Band A medical award. Mr B also provided a report about disrepair in his home.
19. The Council carried out the review in March 2024. It decided to uphold the decision to award Band B. It explained that it was unable to consider the report about disrepair because it had not been completed by Environmental Services.

Analysis

20. I have considered the medical evidence which Mr B provided to the Council. I am satisfied that the Council’s decisions to award Band B on medical grounds were made in accordance with the Council’s housing allocations scheme. I have found no evidence of fault here.
21. The Council’s records show that it has advised Mr B to contact its Private Rented Service if his landlord is not dealing with disrepair in his home. It has also written to him on several occasions explaining that it will only give an applicant an ‘insanitary and unfit conditions’ award if it is provided with an Environmental Health Officer’s report.
22. Mr B has not contacted the Council’s Private Rented Service and he has not provided an Environmental Health Officer’s report. I have found no evidence of fault in the way the Council decided not to give Mr B an ‘insanitary and unfit conditions’ award. Even if Mr B had provided the required evidence, it would not have resulted in any additional priority. This is because applicants living in insanitary and unsatisfactory housing conditions are awarded Band B, which Mr B already has.
23. The Council awarded Band B to Mr B on 23 June 2023. We expect councils to assess housing applications within eight weeks. The Council took around 16 weeks to assess Mr B’s application. This delay was fault. If there had been no delay by the Council here, Mr B would have been awarded Band B around 8 weeks earlier, by 26 April.
24. Government guidance suggests reviews should be carried out within eight weeks. Mr B requested a review on 23 June 2023 and it was completed on 22 March 2024, 39 weeks later. This delay was fault.
25. The Council has accepted that it delayed assessing and reviewing Mr B’s application and it has proposed to backdate his Band B award to 26 April 2023 to remedy his injustice.
26. I do not consider it likely that Mr B missed out on any properties due to the delays. However, the delays will have caused Mr B some frustration.

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Agreed action

27. Within four weeks, the Council will take the following actions:
• Make a payment of £100 to Mr B to recognise the frustration he experienced as a result of the delays in this case.
• Backdate Mr B’s Band B award date to 26 April 2023.
28. Within eight weeks, the Council will provide an updated action plan to show the action it is taking to reduce delays in processing housing applications and carrying out reviews. It will also provide a report showing how long it is currently taking to assess applications and carry out reviews, and how this has changed over the last year. It will explain the reason for any periods when delays have increased.
29. The Council should provide us with evidence it has complied with the above actions.

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Final decision

30. I have completed my investigation and uphold Mr B’s complaint. There was fault by the Council which caused injustice to Mr B. The action it has agreed to take is sufficient to remedy that injustice.

Investigator’s decision on behalf of the Ombudsman

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman