Ms P complained that the Vale of Glamorgan Council had failed to process her homelessness application in a fair and timely manner, and that it did not take account of her needs, or the needs of her disabled children. She also complained that there were issues around her temporary accommodation because it was unsuitable for her children, required professional cleaning and she was not given an access fob for the first 2 weeks. Ms P had raised a formal complaint and received a response but did not receive any further correspondence, despite emailing the Council again on 26 August 2023.
We found that since the time of Ms P’s email, matters had moved forward; some of the concerns she brought to the Ombudsman, and some of the content of her email of 26 August, also raised issues that the Council had not considered or addressed. There was a failure to acknowledge Ms P’s email of 26 August, which had raised issues that warranted a further substantive response. Ms P said that she had evidence to demonstrate that the initial delay in progressing her application was not attributable to her, and that her requests for communication had not been responded to. The Council failed to request or review this additional evidence and, although it had recognised that communications with Ms P could have been better, it could have done more to directly address the impact on Ms P and her young children.
The Council agreed to apologise for failing to acknowledge or address Ms P’s email, to contact Ms P to gather the additional evidence she wanted to present, and to provide a further response to address the outstanding issues. It agreed to complete these actions within 6 weeks.