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

The complaint

1. Miss X complained about the Council’s assessment of her housing application. She says she is in a 1-bedroom flat and she needs 2 bedrooms due to overcrowding and her medical needs. She has some priority for overcrowding and is in Band 3 but she says she should warrant Band 2 priority for medical reasons. She has submitted several medical assessment requests since 2023 but none have been successful.

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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 the Council’s responses. I have also considered the Council’s housing allocations policy.
4. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

5. Miss X says she is currently on band 3 on the housing register but believes she should have additional priority due to her medical circumstances. She has submitted four medical assessment requests since July 2023 and each review has been unsuccessful and she remains in Band 3.
6. The Council says that her medical needs do not meet the threshold for medical priority as they are not directly related to her current housing other than due to overcrowding for which she has already secured priority. It has advised her that if her medical conditions change she may submit a further review request. It also says that she has not made any bids under the choice-based lettings system since her application became active.
7. 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.
8. We 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. I can see no evidence that the Council has failed to apply the correct priority to Miss X’s application under its allocations scheme.

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Final decision

9. We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s assessment of a 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