Council failed to act with a sense of urgency in managed move for resident exposed to gang involvement: Ombudsman

In a report the LGSCO concluded Adur District Council failed to act with a sense of urgency in completing the managed move, made offers of unsuitable housing and failed to issue formal decision notices.

The Ombudsman found that the resident was caused injustice in that she was housed unsuitably, and separated from her child, for longer than she would otherwise have been.

The council has agreed to apologise, make her a symbolic payment in recognition of the injustice caused, and take action to prevent a recurrence.

The resident and her child were in a secure tenancy before a vandalism attack on their home, which the council linked to the child’s involvement with a criminal gang. The council’s safeguarding team felt it was not safe for the resident’s child to return to the property after the incident.

Adur offered the resident a property, Property A, in her preferred area but it was not available for immediate letting due to a backlog of properties requiring void works.

The council then withdrew the offer of the property because the move was deemed unlikely to break the child’s gang affiliations.

The resident complained about the withdrawal of the managed move offer. She said she had packed all of her belongings, and purchased new furniture, ready for the move.

She then rejected a second offer of the same property it was unsuitable because it lacked central heating, before later accepting the offer due to unsuitability of other properties. The council then withdrew the offer of the property for a second time.

In January 2026 Adur offered the pair a new property in the original area that met her needs. She started her tenancy in February 2026.

The Ombudsman criticised the council for failing to aid its investigation with significant parts of the evidence requested, including written records of the council’s considerations and decision making throughout the case, and a running record of all case notes, correspondence, and notes of calls during the same period.

Copies of formal offers of housing or the withdrawals of those offers, or other written evidence of how it communicated the offers and withdrawals were not provided.

This lack of evidence impacted the investigation to such a degree that some findings were made on the balance of probabilities alone, the report said.

The Ombudsman found that the overall timescale of 19 months was not consistent with the need for an urgent move and was fault. On the balance of probabilities, it found that the resident and her child could have been rehoused by early 2025, a year sooner than was the case.

The first property was not suitable, so the Ombudsman held that it was not fault that the council withdrew the offer, but the failure by the council to communicate the offer or the withdrawal in writing was also fault.

Furthermore, the second offer of the same property was fault, and the repeated failure by the council to communicate the offer or the withdrawal in writing was also fault.

Finally, given the urgency of the situation, the council was at fault in that it made no further offer of housing to the pair between April 2025 and January 2026.

Adur has agreed to make a payment to the pair of £3,600 in recognition of the injustice caused by the delay in completing the managed move to suitable housing between early 2025 and early 2026. It will also apologise for the impacts of its faults.

Within three months the council has agreed to:

• Remind staff of the need to issue formal decision notices in the case of housing offers and the withdrawal of offers;
• Develop an action plan showing how the council will ensure it maintains its housing records so that key documents are easily retrievable and available for inspection by oversight bodies like the Ombudsman; and
• Develop an action plan to enable it to monitor households awaiting managed moves and require senior officer oversight of any cases waiting more than six months.

An Adur District Council spokesperson said: "We have accepted the decision of the ombudsman, apologised to the tenant and paid her compensation.

"Every one of our Adur Homes tenants deserves to live in a good home that suits their needs. We agree that we could have done better in this case and have taken steps to prevent similar situations happening."

Harry Rodd