If you believe that we have not treated your complaint fairly or that we have not met our own standards for handling complaints and, your complaint has been through both stages of our Complaints Procedure, then you can ask the Local Government Ombudsman (LGO) or Housing Ombudsman (HO) to review your complaint and offer you further advice. This requires complainants to go through all stages of the Council’s own procedure first, except in certain circumstances.
Both offer a free service that anyone can use and they provide a final stage of investigation into complaints made about councils. They can provide information about next steps and whether they can or should investigate on your behalf if you:
- are not happy with the way we have handled your complaint
- are not satisfied with our response to your complaint.
Please note that you must contact them yourself if you want to refer your complaint and they will advise you to follow our complaint process in the first instance.
Local Government Ombudsman
Website: www.lgo.org.uk
Telephone: 0300 061 0614
Address: Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman, PO Box 4771, Coventry, CV4 0EH
Housing Ombudsman
Website: www.housing-ombudsman.org.uk
Telephone: 0300 1113000
Address: Housing Ombudsman Service, Exchange Tower, Harbour Exchange Square, London, E14 9GE.