Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about how much priority the Council gave Miss X’s housing application. The evidence suggests the Council reached its decision properly, so investigation would be unlikely to find fault.

The complaint

1. Miss X complains the Council has not given her housing application enough priority for her household’s medical need and overcrowding. She says this means her family is unlikely to be rehoused.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. We investigate complaints of injustice caused by ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’. I have used the word fault to refer to these. 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)

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How I considered this complaint

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

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My assessment

5. We are not an appeal body. It is not for us to decide how much priority someone should have for social housing. That is for the Council to decide. As paragraph 2 explained, our role is to consider whether the Council reached its decision properly.
6. Miss X wants her application to have higher medical priority. The Council explained why it awarded ‘moderate’ rather than ‘major’ medical priority. It gave reasons with reference to its policy and to the information it had about the medical circumstances of Miss X’s household members. Therefore the evidence suggests the Council properly reached its decision on medical priority. So, as paragraph 2 explained we cannot criticise that decision, although Miss X can disagree with the Council.
7. Miss X’s property is overcrowded. The Council has explained why the level of overcrowding does not qualify as statutory overcrowding, for which the Council would give extra priority. I see no reason to criticise the Council’s reasoning on that point. So there is no fault in the Council not giving Miss X’s application extra priority for statutory overcrowding. The Council has given the application the overcrowding priority its policy allows for the overcrowding level in this case. So I do not fault how the Council has treated the overcrowding.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman