Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s assessment of Mr X’s housing application. There is insufficient evidence of fault which would warrant an investigation.

The complaint

1. Mr X complained about the Council’s failure to offer him suitable accommodation since he was discharged from hospital into step-down accommodation in 2023. He says he has only been offered unsuitable emergency accommodation and that his application for an adapted property has not resulted in any offers since he applied in August 2023. He wants the Council to offer him a 4-bedroom adapted social housing property suitable for his needs.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. We investigate 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 continue an investigation if we decide:

• there is not enough evidence of fault to justify investigating, or
• we could not add to any previous investigation by the organisation, or
• further investigation would not lead to a different outcome.

(Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))

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How I considered this complaint

3. I considered the information provided by the complainant and the Council.
4. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

5. Mr X was discharged from hospital in early 2023. He did not have a housing application at the time because this was closed in 2022 following his refusal to consider private rented vacancies. The Council offered him emergency accommodation under the homelessness relief duty but he refused it as being unsuitable for his needs.
6. The Hospital Discharge team found short term step-down housing for Mr X in June 2023 following his rejection of further emergency accommodation. In July he told the Council he did not wish to proceed with further part Vll homelessness investigations and made a new application to the housing register. The Council accepted his application in August and informed him he is eligible for a 4-bedroom adapted property for his medical needs.
7. Since that time Mr X has not been successful in finding any vacancies or had any offers from the Council. The Council has advised him to sign a tenancy agreement for his current step-down accommodation because the availability of 4-bedroom adapted homes is scarce and it may be 15 years before such a vacancy is available. The Council would also have to consider other applicants for any vacancies who may have similar or greater housing needs.
8. The Ombudsman is not an appeal body. This means we do not take a second look at a decision to decide if it was wrong. Instead, we look at the processes an organisation followed to make its decision. If we consider it followed those processes correctly, we cannot question whether the decision was right or wrong, regardless of whether someone disagrees with the decision the organisation made.
9. The Ombudsman may not find fault with a council’s assessment of a housing application/ a housing applicant’s priority if it has carried this out in line with its published allocations scheme. We recognise that the demand for social housing far outstrips the supply of properties in many areas. In this case the Council has assessed Mr X’s application but it has no duty to provide offers of accommodation to him and any suitable vacancies must be allocated according to its published allocations policy.

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Final decision

10. We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s assessment of Mr X’s housing application. There is insufficient evidence of fault which would warrant an investigation.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman