The West London council has apologised for the fault and the injustice caused to the woman
Hounslow Council removed a pregnant and homeless woman from its housing list without informing her.
The West London authority has been found at fault by the local government watchdog over its failure to properly communicate with the mother regarding her housing application.
The woman, referred to as Miss H, also raised a complaint accusing the council’s housing allocations policy of being discriminatory against pregnant women on maternity leave – however this was not upheld.
In 2022, Miss H applied to join the council’s housing register. Around the same time she contacted Hounslow Council for homelessness advice because her mother had asked her to move out.
At this stage, the local authority accepted it had a duty towards her due to her homelessness and cancelled her initial housing register application because the homelessness application took priority. In May 2024, Miss H contacted the council to check on her housing application she initially raised in 2022.
By this point, she was pregnant, had older children, and was still living with her mother. The council then informed her that the 2022 application had been cancelled and advised her that she could not make another application because she was not working.
Miss H then filed a formal complaint against the council as she was not notified that her application had been cancelled. In its first response, the council apologised for failing to notify her that the application was closed, but noted that she likely wouldn’t have been accepted onto the register since she was unemployed.
When Miss H escalated the complaint, the council’s second response clarified that the employment restriction is only applied to Band 3, and asserted that the policy did not breach equality duties as it had carried out an equalities impact assessment.
The Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman evaluated whether the policy directly discriminated against Miss H. It found that the council did not discriminate against her.
The council was ruled to have followed government guidance explicitly encouraging housing authorities to give extra priority to working households. Importantly, the council provides an alternative route for applicants with protected characteristics, which acts as a safety valve to alleviate any indirect discrimination caused by the policy.
Hounslow Council also informed the Ombudsman that it was highly unlikely any applicant in Band 3 would receive a three-bedroom social housing property regardless of wait time, but proposed presenting Miss H’s case to this Exceptional Needs Referral Panel.
The Ombudsman ruled that the council was at fault for its lack of communication in failing to notify Miss H that her housing application was closed, and that this fault caused an injustice. To remedy the situation, the council agreed to apologise to Miss H, and write to her offering her the opportunity to apply for the Exceptional Needs Referral Panel.
Hounslow Council was contacted for comment.
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