What this guide covers
Ordinary council complaints in England are not a single statutory appeal system. The Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman's Complaint Handling Code is issued as advice and guidance under section 23(12A) of the Local Government Act 1974. Councils should consider it when designing policies and responding to complaints, but it does not displace statutory complaint, review or appeal schemes. The practical job is to identify what route applies, preserve any external deadline, and keep the service problem separate from the complaint-handling problem.
What councils and LGSCO can do to put things right: practical action, reconsideration, reimbursement, apology, time and trouble, symbolic payments and service improvement.
The points that usually decide the case
- Complaint redress is not the same as common-law damages. Ombudsman financial remedies are often symbolic and aimed at putting the person back in the position they would otherwise have been in, or acknowledging avoidable injustice.
- Ask first for practical correction: complete the service, reconsider properly, correct records, refund a wrongly charged amount or implement an agreed action.
- Out-of-pocket loss should be evidenced with receipts or other records and linked causally to the fault.
- Time-and-trouble remedies usually concern avoidable extra effort caused by poor handling, not the ordinary effort involved in making a complaint.
- Distress, uncertainty, lost opportunity and loss of amenity can sometimes justify a symbolic remedy, depending on severity and duration.
- Where the council upholds part of a complaint, ask it to explain what remedy was considered even if it decides no financial payment is appropriate.
Common situations
| What happens | How to approach it |
|---|---|
| The council apologises but you incurred a direct cost | Set out the cost, evidence and causal link separately from distress or inconvenience. |
| The council says its complaints process 'is not for compensation' | That may distinguish complaints from damages claims, but it does not prevent the council considering appropriate redress or reimbursement. |
| You want thousands of pounds for inconvenience | Check whether the loss is a legal damages claim rather than Ombudsman-style symbolic redress; the routes and tests differ. |
Start with the correct route
Before complaining, write down the council function, the act or omission you challenge, the outcome you want and whether a separate statutory review or appeal exists. Corporate complaints are a safety net for service and administrative failures; they are not a substitute for every appeal. If a council declines to accept a complaint, it should explain why and signpost the relevant external route.
Build the complaint around issues, not volume
Number the issues. For each one state what happened, what should have happened, the evidence, the resulting injustice and the remedy sought. This makes omissions visible at Stage 1 and gives Stage 2 a defined task. Keep new, unrelated problems separate unless combining them would genuinely make the investigation clearer.
Keep actions and the complaint running in parallel
A complaint response does not have to wait until every remedial action is complete. Likewise, logging a complaint should not stop the service team fixing the underlying problem. Track both: the complaint deadline and the outstanding operational action.
Escalation is about what remains unresolved
At Stage 2, identify the unanswered or wrongly answered points, factual errors, overlooked evidence, unexplained policy departures and inadequate remedy. The LGSCO Code says the Stage 2 reviewer should not be the same person who considered Stage 1 and the final response should normally be issued within 20 working days of acknowledgement.
Separate putting the service right from remedying the injustice
There are often two different remedies. The first fixes the underlying service problem: carrying out an inspection, reconsidering a decision, correcting a record, completing work or issuing a proper response. The second addresses what has already happened: avoidable time and trouble, distress, loss of amenity, direct financial loss or a lost opportunity. A council can complete the outstanding action and still need to consider the injustice caused by the delay.
Ombudsman-style financial remedies are generally not calculated like court damages. They are intended to acknowledge injustice and put the person back in the position they would probably have been in as far as possible. Evidence of actual financial loss should therefore be separated from a request for a symbolic payment for distress or avoidable effort.
Make the remedy measurable
Instead of asking for “compensation for everything”, identify each outcome: reimbursement of £X supported by receipts; reconsideration by an officer not previously involved; a corrected record; a written apology identifying the failure; a specific service action; and a time-and-trouble payment. If the council upholds part of the complaint but says nothing about redress, ask it to explain what remedy it considered and why the outcome is proportionate to the injustice found.
Evidence to keep
Build the record as you go. The most useful evidence for this topic usually includes:
- original complaint and proof of receipt
- published complaint policy and the version/date relied on
- Stage 1/Stage 2 acknowledgements and target dates
- all substantive responses
- a numbered issue-and-answer schedule
- evidence of the practical injustice and remedy requested
Keep originals and, where a document is later replaced online, retain the version that actually applied to your case. For calls, a contemporaneous note made immediately afterwards is far more useful than trying to reconstruct the conversation months later.
How to put the issue in writing
Use a short issue structure rather than one long narrative. Start with the decision, failure or service request and its reference number. Then number each complaint point. For each point identify the relevant date, the evidence, what you say was wrong, the practical effect and the outcome you want.
If the council has given different explanations, quote each material position with its date and ask it to reconcile them. If a response omits an issue, say “Issue 3 was not answered” and restate only that issue. This produces a record that can be audited at Stage 2 or by an external body without forcing the reader to infer what remains disputed.
When to escalate
If the council has reached its final local response, check whether LGSCO is the appropriate external body. The Ombudsman is not a general Stage 3 merits appeal: frame the case around fault, injustice and remedy. Where a statutory appeal exists, protect that route first.
Escalation should not become an endless email chain. Once the authority has given a final response, or the relevant procedure is unreasonably stalled, preserve the final position and use the external route that has jurisdiction. Keep any legal limitation or statutory appeal deadline under separate review.
What this route cannot guarantee
A complaint can expose poor administration, require a reasoned response and support a remedy, but it does not guarantee the technical, enforcement or discretionary outcome you prefer. Where an authority has lawful discretion, the key question is usually whether it gathered the relevant evidence, applied the correct framework, gave intelligible reasons and acted without avoidable delay.
Likewise, an Ombudsman recommendation, statutory appeal, civil claim, data-protection complaint and information request perform different jobs. ConsumerWise links them where they overlap but keeps the legal tests separate.
Official sources
Check the rules behind this guide
These are official or primary sources for this topic. Council policies, local schemes and statutory deadlines can differ or change. Check the live decision notice and current local policy before relying on a deadline.