Council agrees payout after LGO report on housing association policy mix-up
A local authority has agreed to pay £3,800 to the family of a boy with special needs following an investigation by the Local Government Ombudsman.
Kettering Borough Council accepted that its error meant the family missed out on a new home opposite the boy’s school.
The boy’s special needs require the family to have more room and to live closer to his school.
His father applied to Kettering for rehousing and the council duly assessed the family’s needs.
The authority concluded that the family was eligible under its housing allocations policy and nominated them for a tenancy of a housing association-owned property.
The housing association offered a home next to the school but subsequently withdrew the offer because the boy did not meet its criteria for rehousing.
When the father complained to Kettering, the council refused a request for a review of the decision.
It sought to argue that the decision had been made under the housing association’s policy.
Following the LGO investigation, both Kettering and the housing association accepted this was wrong and the that the property should have been let using the council’s housing policy.
Recording a finding of maladministration causing injustice, the Ombudsman said: “The council’s error has led to the complainant and his family living for longer than he needed to in a home not meeting their needs, and incurring additional transport costs for transporting his son to and from school.”
In addition to making the payout, Kettering has agreed to:
- continue to give the father priority for a home close to his son’s school through a direct letting;
- assess what assistance is required to help meet the son’s needs within the home and identify charities that could offer further assistance until an appropriate property is allocated;
- review its agreements and the understandings housing associations have of those agreements, and
- review staff training needs.
The LGO said it would ask the council to confirm that these steps had been taken within two months.