The Ombudsman's final decision
Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s decisions on the complainant’s business rates. This is because the complaint does not meet the tests in our Assessment Code on how we decide which complaints to investigate. The complaint is late, and we have seen no reasons to exercise discretion in this case.
The complaint
The complainant, I shall call Mr X says in 2020, the Council: refused to pay him a leisure premises grant he believes he is entitled to refused to apply a business rates holiday to one of his premises; and refused to issue an occupied business rates bill
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
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 Council.
I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
Final decision
We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because it is too late.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman