The Ombudsman's final decision
Summary: We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint that the Council gave him incorrect advice about a planning application in 2021. This is because the complaint is late and there are no good reasons to exercise our discretion to investigate it.
The complaint
The complainant, Mr X, complains the Council gave him incorrect information about the documents needed for his planning application. He says that as a result he missed the deadline to claim under the Government’s Green Homes grant scheme, which was 31 October 2021.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
We investigate complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’, which we call ‘fault’. We must also consider whether any fault has had an adverse effect 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 the tests set out in our Assessment Code are not met. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended) The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate.
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 Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
Mr X applied for planning permission from the Council in May 2021 and knew about the issue with the documents at the time. He was aware he had missed out on the grant scheme by 31 October 2021 but did not complain to us about it August 2024. His complaint is therefore almost two years late. I have seen no good reasons for the delay in bringing the complaint to us and I will not therefore exercise our discretion to investigate it.
However, even if we did investigate it is unlikely we would recommend a remedy for Mr X. This is because we could not attribute his injustice to any fault in the Council’s advice. The Green Homes grant scheme opened in September 2020 and applications for grants closed on 31 March 2021. But Mr X did not apply for planning permission until more than a month after the deadline for new applications and the Council granted permission more than two months before the deadline to claim the grant. The injustice he claims is therefore as much a result of his delay in making his application and delays by the company he chose to carry out the work, as it is due to any delay caused by the advice about the documents he needed to provide. It is also entirely possible that the company would not have been able to carry out the work even if the Council had granted planning permission sooner.
Final decision
We will not investigate this complaint. This is because the complaint is late and there are no good reasons to exercise our discretion to investigate it.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman