Hounslow Council “misled” a 21-year-old care leaver by wrongly telling him he would be offered a council house, the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman has ruled. The man, referred to as Mr X, was only offered housing association properties which he found substantially more expensive, contrary to the local offer information he had received.
Background and misleading information
Mr X entered the country as an unaccompanied minor and became looked-after in the local authority care system. He was told that due to his status as a care leaver, his offer of permanent accommodation would be council housing. However, when the time came, he was only offered housing association properties.
At the time, Mr X was in college with intentions to go into full-time work after completing his studies. He was invited to view a property and was told the rent would be £232.18 per week including service charges. The notes of the viewing indicate that Mr X again raised concerns about affordability, as the rent was higher than a council property.
Pressure to accept and affordability concerns
Following the viewing, the council pressed Mr X to make a decision on whether he wanted to accept the property. Ms Z, a third party, complained on behalf of the man to the council about the offer of a property which he considered unaffordable. Ms Z said he had been told the council had a one-offer policy and so he effectively had no choice but to accept or risk losing his right to be housed in the area.
Ms Z said that Mr X had estimated that if he accepted the property he would be left with only £300 per month to spend on travel to and from college, bills, and food. The council said it considered the property to be affordable and accepted that it did not make clear the different types of social housing which could be offered to care leavers – which includes housing association housing.
Ombudsman's ruling and council's response
The Ombudsman stated: “While I note the allocations policy correctly stated that other property types could be offered, I can see no reason why Mr X would look at that policy when the local offer information was given to him stating the offer would be a council property. The incorrect information in the local offer is fault and raised Mr X’s expectation that he would be offered a council property.”
Mr X says that his care advisor told him that if he refused the offer without a significant reason then he would make himself intentionally homeless. When the complaint was escalated to Stage Two, the council refused to comment on this. It said the housing allocations team completed the financial assessment on the basis of Mr X’s circumstances at the time. It said it found it was affordable as Mr X was on universal credit and so qualified for the full rent payment.
The local authority said it could not make decisions based on hypothetical future circumstances relating to his potential future income. The Ombudsman ruled that Mr X was significantly disadvantaged in the process as the council’s care leavers “one-offer” policy does not carry a right of review – unlike most other housing offers.
Remedies and next steps
Hounslow Council has been told to apologise to the man and undertake a review of the suitability of the housing offer made to him. If this review finds that Mr X had good reason to refuse the offered property, the council should reinstate Mr X’s care leaver priority and make a further offer.
A council spokesperson said: "The council does not comment about individual cases. However, the council has acted upon the Ombudsman’s findings and recommendations in full, to resolve the issues raised. The Local Offer has been updated, and we continue to seek to provide a high level of support to all our care leavers."
