The Ombudsman's final decision
Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s treatment of Mr X’s housing application. The complaint is late.
The complaint
Mr X says the Council: deliberately gave his housing application the wrong priority banding for seven years (October 2010 to January 2018); failed to consider points affecting his housing; acted corruptly by manipulating the housing register to rehouse other applicants before Mr X’s family; and let a Council officer investigate a complaint about himself. Mr X says this means he and his family have continued living in overcrowded conditions longer than necessary and have suffered stress and inconvenience.
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) We can decide whether to start or discontinue an investigation into a complaint within our jurisdiction. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 24A(6) and 34B(8), as amended)
How I considered this complaint
I considered information provided by the complainant and copy complaint correspondence from the Council.
I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
Mr X knew in 2018 the Council had increased his application’s priority after seven years. The correspondence I have seen suggests he knew about the other matters by August to October 2020, when he went through the Council’s formal complaint procedure. Mr X did not complain to us until November 2022. So paragraph 2 applies to this complaint.
I note the Council’s final complaint response in October 2020 told Mr X he could go to a different ombudsman, not the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman. However, I do not consider that in itself explains a two-year delay contacting us. I am not persuaded there is good reason to accept the late complaint now.
It is also unlikely we could reach a clear enough view now, on balance, about many events over two years old and, in some cases, significantly older.
We will normally only consider complaints about matters that have completed the Council’s complaint procedure. Mr X completed that procedure in 2020, as explained above. If Mr X wants to complain about any more recent events, he should take such matters through the Council’s complaint procedure, giving the Council clear details of the post-2020 events and dates.
If Mr X believes he has evidence of corruption, that is a matter for the police.
Mr X says a Council officer investigated a complaint against himself. It is not a good use of public resources to investigate complaints about complaint procedures, if we are unable to deal with the substantive issue.
Final decision
We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because it is late without good reason to consider it now and it is unlikely we could reach a clear enough view now on all the relevant events. It would be disproportionate to investigate the complaint-handling point by itself.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman