LGO censures council for "unisolated" homelessness duty failure

July 12, 2013

Bristol City Council has been failing in its legal duty to provide homeless people with the chance to appeal against its decisions not to house them, the Local Government Ombudsman (LGO) has found.

The problem was uncovered after a woman complained to the LGO that the council had not found her accommodation, five months after she contacted them for help.

The woman first approached Bristol City Council in August 2012. The council did not offer the woman temporary accommodation as they did not consider her eligible, but did give her advice on renting privately.

However, the council did not write to tell her it would not house her, something it has a legal duty to perform. Without a written decision, the woman never knew for certain whether the council would house her and was denied the chance to appeal against the decision, either via an internal review within the council, or through the courts.

The ombudsman’s investigation revealed that the complainant’s situation was unlikely to be an isolated case in Bristol. The ombudsman found that this failure to issue a decision notice was not a one-off and, by not performing this duty, the council was denying people the right to seek an internal review or appeal in court.

Dr Jane Martin, Local Government Ombudsman said: “By failing to meet its legal duty to provide homeless people with a written decision, not only is the council leaving people in limbo wondering whether or not they will be housed, but it also denied them the opportunity to appeal that decision.”

“I recognise that Bristol City Council has chosen to focus its resources to prioritise higher risk homelessness applications, however, it is necessary to issue a report because more people are being affected by the council’s inaction.”

Bristol City Council has since agreed to apologise to the woman and provide her with a written decision on her application, including details on how she can appeal. It has also agreed to pay the woman £200 in compensation in recognition of their failings, carry out a review of its homelessness procedures and seek counsel’s opinion on those revised procedures. However, it refuted the ombudsman's assertion that that it was prioritising specific groups of homeless people.

Councillor Mark Bradshaw, Assistant Mayor responsible for Strategic Housing said: “On behalf of the council, I can say that we accept the findings of the report and have apologised to the applicant and paid compensation for the council’s failure to deal with her application to the standard that we would expect.

“The council has limited resources and has to work within those to ensure that we focus on the most vulnerable households whilst complying with our statutory duties. As the Ombudsman notes in their report the council “is committed to homelessness prevention and so will provide advice and support to as many people as possible, including those not owed a full homelessness duty.”

“In this case we concentrated our efforts on providing her with practical help to secure a private tenancy, however we accept that the council should have issued her with a formal written decision in 2012.

“We are reviewing our procedures in the light of the ruling by the Ombudsman and will seek legal advice on revised practices.

"Contrary to what was stated in the report, however, the council is not moving the focus of its homelessness prevention efforts away from single people and childless couples to those with children. The focus remains on people with priority need and the council accepts many full duties towards single people and childless couples.”

Councillor Mark Bradshaw, Assistant Mayor responsible for Strategic Housing said:

“On behalf of the council, I can say that we accept the findings of the report and have apologised to the applicant and paid compensation for the council’s failure to deal with her application to the standard that we would expect.

“We are reviewing our procedures in the light of the ruling by the Ombudsman and will seek legal advice on revised practices.

Contrary to what was stated in the report, however, the council is not moving the focus of its homelessness prevention efforts away from single people and childless couples to those with children. The focus remains on people with priority need and the council accepts many full duties towards single people and childless couples.”