The Ombudsman's final decision
Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about Ms X’s housing, including delays reviewing her banding on the housing register, because there is no more worthwhile outcome achievable.
The complaint
Ms X complains the Council: Failed to reassess her priority on the housing register after she submitted a change of circumstances in July 2025; Delayed reviewing her priority banding on the housing register when she asked for a review in January 2026; and Failed to engage properly with her complaints.
Ms X said because of the Council’s faults she has been caused financial hardship and distress. Ms X seeks compensation and her priority on the housing register reassessed.
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 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 or continue an investigation if we decide there is not enough evidence of fault to justify investigating, there is no worthwhile outcome achievable by our investigation. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))
How I considered this complaint
I considered information provided by the complainant and the Council.
I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
Ms X asked the Council in July 2025 to consider her change of circumstances and increase her priority award on the housing register for medical reasons.
The Council accepted it delayed processing her change of circumstances and then delayed carrying out a review of her banding. When it did make its review decision, it made its decision in line with its allocations policy and decided she was in the correct band. However the Council noted she needed an additional priority award star.
The Council took the following action: apologised for the delays; applied the star to her housing application; confirmed she had not missed out on any property because of the star not being added before; carried out service improvements to prevent recurrence of the faults; and offered Ms X £260 in recognition of the impact of its delays and £75 in recognition of the impact of the delayed priority star (£335 in total).
The Council has taken sufficient action to remedy the injustice caused and so there is no more worthwhile outcome achievable through further investigation. We will not investigate these complaints further.
Ms X also complained the Council failed to properly address her complaints. Ms X made multiple complaints and the Council responded to her key points and offered remedies where it found it was at fault. There is not enough evidence of fault to justify further investigation into the Council’s complaint handling.
Final decision
We will not investigate Ms X’s complaint because there is no more worthwhile outcome achievable.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman