this complaint about the Council’s administration of an area-wide housing allocations system in which several councils and housing associations participate. There is insufficient evidence of fault which would warrant an investigation.
The complaint
Miss X complained about the way in which the allocations system for her council area, and that of neighbouring councils who participate, place restrictions on certain properties which makes it impossible for someone with her needs to be offered a suitable vacancy. She says the councils should make stock available to a wider range of applicants and provide properties with disabled access which do not have a walk-in shower.
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, or any fault has not caused injustice to the person who complained, or any injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement.
(Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))
How I considered this complaint
I considered the information provided by the complainant and the Council’s response provided by Devon Homes Choice Board Chair and the Council which is lead authority in the umbrella body for housing allocations in Devon.
I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
Miss X says she is currently accepted under the Council’s homelessness duty and has been in temporary accommodation since 2023. She has mobility needs and says although she has high priority on the housing list in Band B she has been overlooked by participating councils for her Devon Home Choice housing application. She says restrictions on vacancies to certain groups of applicants mean that she finds it impossible to bid successfully. She is concerned that some properties are incorrectly advertised as being for general needs whilst other groups such as homeless applicants receive higher priority than groups with other housing needs.
She complained to the Council and Devon Home Choice to respond because her complaint was about allocations policy in all the council areas involved in the scheme.
The Council responded to the complaint. It told Miss X that although it operates the allocations policy, individual councils in the scheme may apply their own local allocations restrictions and local policies when selecting an applicant for a vacancy. This is to comply with the Localism Act 2011 which allows councils to devise their own allocations criteria.
DHC has some control over percentages of applicants from certain groups and for applicants outside a council’s area who have no connection being given an opportunity to bid. However, it cannot override restrictions imposed on vacancies where there are local policies, planning s.106 restrictions or disabled adaptations present in a property. Neither DHC nor the Council as the lead authority have regulatory powers over advertising or shortlisting the applicants for individual vacancies.
Miss X says she has mobility needs but requires a bathtub and most mobility adapted vacancies have walk-in showers which means they are allocated to applicants with those needs. DHC says this is a reflection of most housing stock retained by social housing landlords and disabled access homes often have these features as a requirement.
The Council accepted Miss X’s concerns that some properties may be advertised with an incorrect accessibility category and upheld previously a complaint by Miss X that a property was incorrectly advertised and this was changed. However, the vacancies are with the participating landlords so it is difficult for DHC to know if the advertised description is accurate without knowledge of the housing stock. The Council agreed to recommend that the Management Board of DHC issues updated guidance to the councils on restrictions and categorisation of vacancies in future.
Because the Council and DHC have no regulatory powers it is not possible to say that there has been fault on their part with regard to the housing allocations scheme for Devon area. If Miss X believes she has evidence of discrimination against her under the provisions of the Equality Act 2010 she would need to make a complaint to the individual council concerned so that it can consider this as a formal complaint.
Final decision
We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s administration of an area-wide housing allocations system in which several councils and housing associations participate. There is insufficient evidence of fault which would warrant an investigation.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman