Leicester City Council has refused part of the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman’s recommendation to pay a homeless domestic abuse victim following a complaint.
The Ombudsman investigated the council after a mother and her children, who had fled their home to escape domestic abuse, were placed in a bed and breakfast for 13 weeks longer than the six weeks limit.
The council has agreed to make a symbolic payment of £500 to the family but has refused to pay a further £1,300 to acknowledge the distress caused.
It has also rejected a recommendation to pay £150 for every month the family remained in unsuitable temporary accommodation.
The local authority insisted that the national homelessness crisis has caused ‘unprecedented and unavoidable’ use of temporary accommodation.
It added that making all the payments recommended would be disastrous for local councils, setting a precedent that could cost them around £130m.
Cllr Elly Cutkelvin, deputy city mayor for housing, commented: ‘Along with almost every other council in the country, we have limited ability to create the extra housing that would be needed to avert the need to keep families in B&B for more than six weeks, and are therefore hostage to forces beyond our control.’
Ms Amerdeep Somal, Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman, said the council was ‘not accepting the gravity of the injustice to this family by not agreeing the pay the financial remedy I have recommended.’
