The Ombudsman's final decision
Summary: We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint about the Council’s delay in dealing with his planning application. This is because it would have been reasonable for Mr X to appeal against the delay and it is not for us to provide a remedy for the consequential loss he claims.
The complaint
The complainant, Mr X, complains the Council delayed in dealing with his planning application. He says this has resulted in a financial loss of more than £6,000.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate.
The law says we cannot normally investigate a complaint when someone can appeal to a government minister. However, we may decide to investigate if we consider it would be unreasonable to expect the person to appeal. (Local Government Act 1974, section 26(6)(b)) The Planning Inspector acts on behalf of the responsible Government minister. The Planning Inspector considers appeals about: delay – usually over eight weeks – by an authority in deciding an application for planning permission a decision to refuse planning permission conditions placed on planning permission a planning enforcement notice.
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)
How I considered this complaint
I considered information provided by Mr X and the Council.
I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
The law provides a right of appeal to the Planning Inspectorate for delay in the planning process, as set out at Paragraph 4 above.
If Mr X was unhappy with the time taken by the Council to deal with his application it would have been reasonable for him to appeal.
The appeals process allows a planning applicant to make a claim for costs resulting from the appeal but does not provide a right to compensation for losses resulting from the delay. While this means the process does not provide a complete remedy for the injustice Mr X claims the courts have made clear this does not bring the complaint within our jurisdiction.
The complaint is also largely late. Mr X applied for planning permission in April 2021 but did not complain to us about the delay until 26 July 2022. Even if we were to investigate any investigation would therefore likely focus on the delay from 26 July 2021 until the Council’s grant of planning permission and we could not say this caused the injustice Mr X claims.
Final decision
We will not investigate this complaint. This is because it would have been reasonable for Mr X to appeal to the Planning Inspectorate.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman