How to complain about a local council

Councils in England handle complaints through a corporate complaints procedure, normally two internal stages followed by the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman (LGSCO). The LGSCO's Complaint Handling Code asks councils to respond within 10 working days at Stage 1 and 20 working days at Stage 2, so those are sound defaults to hold a council to, though each council publishes its own policy.

A complaint is about something the council did or failed to do: missed care visits, planning enforcement ignored, benefits maladministration, endless delays. If you are instead challenging a formal decision that carries a right of appeal (a parking ticket, a planning refusal, council tax banding), use the appeal route. The ombudsman will not normally look at matters where you had an appeal right.

The stages at a glance

01Stage 1: Formal complaint
Response: typically 10 working days
Use the council's online complaints form or write to its complaints team. State what happened, when, what the council's own policy or duty required, and what outcome you want. The Complaint Handling Code expects acknowledgment within 5 working days and a full response within 10 working days of that, with an explanation if more time is genuinely needed.
02Stage 2: Internal review / final response
Response: typically 20 working days
If you are unhappy with the Stage 1 outcome, ask for it to be escalated. A more senior officer who was not involved at Stage 1 reviews the complaint and issues the council's final response, normally within 20 working days. Be specific about which parts of the Stage 1 response you dispute and why; a Stage 2 that just says “I disagree” usually gets the same answer restated.
03Stage 3: Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman
Once the council's procedure is complete, or 12 weeks have passed without a final response, you can bring the complaint to the LGSCO. It is free, independent, and can recommend apologies, service changes and financial remedies; councils almost always comply. Complain to the ombudsman within 12 months of when you first knew something was wrong.

Complaints that follow a different route

A few areas have their own statutory procedures with different stages and deadlines:

Children's social care: complaints under the Children Act 1989 follow a separate statutory three-stage procedure with its own timescales, including an independent review panel.
Council housing repairs and management: if the council is your landlord, escalation is to the Housing Ombudsman, not the LGSCO.
Housing benefit and council tax decisions: these carry appeal rights to tribunals, which take priority over the complaints route.
Councillor conduct: complaints about individual councillors go to the council's monitoring officer under the members' code of conduct.

What to keep as evidence

The ombudsman decides on the paper trail: what you told the council, what it promised, and what actually happened. Its published decisions show how heavily dated records weigh.

Reference numbers for every report and complaint you submit, and screenshots of online forms.
The council's published complaints policy and any service standards it commits to.
Each response, with dates received against the 10 and 20 working day expectations.
A running note of the injustice to you (costs incurred, services missed, time and trouble), because remedies are assessed against it.

Common questions

How long does a council have to respond to a complaint?

Under the LGSCO's Complaint Handling Code, councils should acknowledge a complaint within 5 working days, respond at Stage 1 within 10 working days, and respond at Stage 2 within 20 working days. Individual council policies may differ slightly, but a council that takes months without explanation is itself at fault; the ombudsman treats unexplained delay as maladministration.

Can I go straight to the ombudsman?

Normally no. The LGSCO expects the council to have had a fair chance to put things right first, meaning its complaints procedure is complete. The main exception is delay: if roughly 12 weeks pass without the council finishing its process, the ombudsman can take the complaint anyway.

What can the ombudsman actually do?

The LGSCO cannot fine a council or discipline staff, but it can recommend apologies, specific actions, procedural changes and financial payments for injustice, and it publishes its decisions. Councils comply with the overwhelming majority of recommendations, and non-compliance is publicly reported.

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Official sources

This guide is general information about complaint procedures in England, last reviewed 2026-07-16. It isn't legal advice; always check the organisation's own published policy.