Summary: We cannot investigate Mr X’s complaint about the decisions of the Police and Crime Commissioner relating to the disposal of residential properties. This is because those decisions affect all or most of the people who live in the Authority’s area. In any case, we would not investigate because there is no evidence the Authority’s actions have caused Mr X a significant injustice.

The complaint

1. Mr X said the Authority should have done more to ensure it disposed of empty residential properties it was responsible for, at the time when they became vacant in 2018. Mr X said this has cost the Authority unnecessary expense.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate.
3. We cannot investigate something that affects all or most of the people in a council’s area. (Local Government Act 1974, section 26(7), as amended)
4. 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 an investigation if we decide any fault has not caused a significant injustice to the person who complained. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))

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How I considered this complaint

5. I considered information provided by Mr X and I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

6. Mr X said the Authority was at fault because it did not take effective action to ensure it disposed of empty residential properties when they became vacant and were no longer in use. Mr X said this amounted to gross incompetence and represented an unnecessary expense because the authority will have needlessly paid Council Tax for each property during the period they were empty.
7. We cannot investigate Mr X’s complaint, because the actions he alleges to be fault, are ones that affect all the people in the Authority’s area and the law precludes us from investigating.
8. In any event, setting these considerations aside, we would not investigate because there is no evidence the Authority’s actions have caused Mr X a significant injustice. We do not start an investigation if we decide the impact of the fault a person complains about is not so significant that we should investigate.
9. We will normally only investigate a complaint where the complainant has suffered serious loss, harm or distress as a direct result of faults or failures by an organisation. In addition, we will not normally investigate a complaint where the complainant is using their enquiry as a way of raising a wider community campaign about something of general concern but where they have not suffered injustice.

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Final decision

10. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because it is one the affects all or most of the people in the Authority’s area, and in any case, there is not enough evidence of a significant injustice affecting Mr X personally.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman