The Ombudsman's final decision
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
Miss X complained about the Council’s decision to remove her housing application from the register. She says she is facing problems in her current social housing tenancy due to criminal activity in the area.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
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)
How I considered this complaint
I considered information provided by the complainant and the Council. I have also considered the Council’s housing allocations policy.
I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
Miss X says in November 2024 the Council sent a decision to reject her housing application which she submitted in August. It told her that it had checked her reasons for wanting to move from an existing social tenancy with her current landlord. The landlord had informed the Council she had previously refused two reasonable offers to move from her current area and that the behaviour she had reported had no new developments since 2023.
Miss X asked for a review of the decision which the Council carried out under s.166A of the Housing Act 1996. The review was completed in January 2025 and it upheld the November decision that she was not eligible for the list due to her having refused offers and having insufficient recent grounds for moving.
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.
We may not find fault with a council’s assessment of a housing application 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. In this case the Council conducted a comprehensive review and the outcome on the case was unchanged.
Final decision
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.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman