Local Council Complaints

Councils are not regulated by a single body. Instead, Part III of the Local Government Act 1974 gives the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman power to investigate complaints that a council has caused injustice through maladministration. That phrase governs everything: the LGSCO is not a court of appeal on the merits of a decision, but on how the decision was reached and what it cost you.

Maladministration in practice means failing to follow the council's own policy or a statutory procedure, unreasonable delay, losing documents, failing to give reasons, giving wrong advice, or failing to act on a decision once made. Injustice means a real consequence — money lost, a service missed, an entitlement delayed, avoidable distress, or the time and trouble of chasing.

The services within reach cover most of what a council does:

• Housing: allocations, homelessness decisions, repairs to council properties, anti-social behaviour handling.
• Planning: how an application was handled, enforcement delays, failure to consult.
• Social care: adult care assessments, care packages, charging decisions, children's services.
• Benefits and revenues: council tax reduction, local welfare assistance, council tax administration.
• Education: SEND and EHC plan administration, school admission appeal panels, exclusions.
• Highways and environment: road and pavement maintenance, parking enforcement, noise, pest control, refuse.

The LGSCO also covers adult social care providers directly — including private care homes and home care agencies, whether the care is council-funded or self-funded.

Three gateways have to be open before the LGSCO will look at a complaint.

You must be personally affected, or complaining on behalf of someone who is — a relative, a friend, or someone you support. Where that person cannot consent, the LGSCO can accept a representative acting in their interests. You do not need a solicitor.

The council must have had its chance first. Section 26(5) of the 1974 Act requires the council to have had the opportunity to investigate and reply — in practice, completing its complaints procedure. The exceptions are narrow: no procedure, a refusal to engage, or serious risk of harm in waiting.

You must be in time. The complaint must normally reach the LGSCO within 12 months of the day you first knew, or ought reasonably to have known, about the matter. The Ombudsman has discretion to accept late complaints where it would be unjust not to — for example where you were a child at the time, were unaware of the failure, or were prevented from complaining by illness or disability. Ask expressly, and explain the delay; do not assume it will be overlooked.

One further restriction bites often. Under section 26(6) the LGSCO will not normally investigate where you have a right of appeal to a tribunal or a remedy in court, unless it is not reasonable to expect you to use it. That is what pushes planning, council tax, housing benefit, and SEND disputes down the statutory routes described below.

Most councils run a two-stage corporate procedure. Stage one is handled by a manager in the service area, with a response typically within 15–20 working days. Stage two is a review by a complaints officer or senior manager, typically within 20–25 working days. Those are published service standards rather than legal deadlines, but the LGSCO treats unreasonable departure from them as maladministration in its own right.

Two service areas run on separate statutory procedures instead, and it matters which you are in:

• Adult social care complaints fall under the Local Authority Social Services and NHS Complaints (England) Regulations 2009: a single-stage procedure, acknowledged within three working days, with the council agreeing a response timetable with you.
• Children's services complaints follow the three-stage Children Act 1989 representations procedure — local resolution, then an investigation by an independent investigating officer, then a review panel. It is slower but far more thorough, and skipping stages weakens a later LGSCO complaint.

Whichever applies, put the complaint in writing and structure it: what happened and when; which policy, procedure, or statutory duty was not followed; what it cost you; what you want done. Send documents rather than describing them, and keep every response — the LGSCO will want the council's final letter, and a complaint without one usually goes straight back. If the council badly misses its own timescales, say so in writing and give a deadline; persistent silence is itself referable.

Refer online at lgo.org.uk, by phone on 0300 061 0614, or in writing. The service is free. Send the council's final response, a dated chronology, the key documents, and a clear statement of the outcome you want.

An initial assessor decides whether to investigate. If taken up, an investigator obtains the council's file, puts the allegations to it, and produces a draft statement of reasons both sides can comment on before the final decision. Most cases are decided on documents. Straightforward complaints take a few months, complex social care cases considerably longer.

What the LGSCO can recommend: a written apology from a senior officer; a financial payment for distress, time and trouble, or quantified loss; a decision retaken properly; records corrected; a service delivered that should have been delivered; and changes to policy, training, or procedure to stop it recurring. Payments are calibrated to the injustice rather than to punish — commonly a few hundred pounds for moderate distress, rising into the thousands where the failure was serious and long-running.

What it cannot do: fine the council, overturn a lawful decision it disagrees with, discipline an officer, or investigate council employment matters, court decisions, the police, the NHS, or government departments. Its recommendations are not strictly binding, but councils comply in the overwhelming majority of cases — and where one refuses, the Ombudsman can issue a public interest report the council must publish, which is usually decisive.

Some council decisions carry their own appeal rights, and using the complaints process instead will normally waste the deadline that mattered:

• Council tax liability, discounts, exemptions, and banding: appeal to the Valuation Tribunal for England.
• Planning refusals and conditions: appeal to the Planning Inspectorate.
• Housing benefit and council tax reduction decisions: appeal to the First-tier Tribunal (Social Entitlement Chamber), or the Valuation Tribunal for council tax reduction.
• EHC plans and SEND decisions: appeal to the First-tier Tribunal (SEND).
• Homelessness decisions: request a statutory review under section 202 of the Housing Act 1996 within 21 days, then appeal on a point of law to the county court.
• School admissions: use the independent appeal panel first.

The complaints route still has a job to do alongside these. The LGSCO cannot second-guess the decision itself, but it can investigate how the council handled the matter — delay in issuing the decision, failure to tell you about your appeal right, losing your evidence, or refusing to implement a tribunal's ruling. If you have missed a statutory deadline because the council misled you about it, say that expressly: it is exactly the kind of maladministration the Ombudsman exists to remedy.

Roughly half of complaints are not taken forward at initial assessment, so a refusal is common and is not necessarily the end.

Ask for a review of the assessment decision. The LGSCO will reconsider a decision not to investigate where you can point to something material it missed or misunderstood. Restating the complaint achieves little; identifying the specific document or fact that was overlooked sometimes works.

Check whether you were sent to the wrong scheme. Housing association and council landlord complaints about repairs and tenancy conditions belong to the Housing Ombudsman, not the LGSCO. NHS matters go to the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman. Police complaints go to the IOPC.

Consider whether the decision was unlawful rather than merely wrong. Where a council has acted outside its powers, breached a statutory duty, or reached a decision no reasonable authority could reach, judicial review is the remedy — but the deadline is short (promptly, and within three months), and it is a challenge to legality, not to fairness. See judicial review basics.

Escalate politically. Your ward councillor can raise the matter internally, and your MP can take it up where a government department is involved — see complaining to your MP. Neither replaces a legal remedy, but both can unblock a stalled case.