Local Government Ombudsman

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  • 0300 061 0614

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Complaints about the way the council deals with your application for planning permission

This fact sheet is aimed primarily at planning applicants who have concerns about the way the council has dealt with their planning application and may be considering making a complaint to the Ombudsman.

I have a problem with my application for planning permission - can the Ombudsman help me?

  • In many cases, no. This is because, by law, the Ombudsman cannot normally investigate a complaint where there is or was a right of appeal to a government minister. If you are someone who is affected by a decision to refuse you permission for development, or for other works where consent is required by planning law, in most cases you have a right to appeal to the Planning Inspectorate. In addition, if you have already made an appeal to the Planning Inspectorate before contacting the Ombudsman, or make an appeal during our investigation, we will not be able to consider your complaint.
  • The Inspectorate deals with planning appeals on behalf of the relevant government minister, the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government. So if what you want to achieve is the permission or consent you applied for, the Local Government Ombudsman cannot help.
  • But sometimes something happens which cannot be remedied by an appeal to the Planning Inspectorate and it would not be reasonable for you to be expected to pursue an appeal. In such cases the Ombudsman has discretion to consider whether to investigate your complaint.
  • Every case is different and it is not possible to give a specific list of the type of cases the Ombudsman can investigate. Generally, though, the key factor is whether you have been affected by a decision where you have or had a right of appeal capable of putting things right for you – if you have, the Ombudsman will generally not be able to help you.
  • This includes cases where you think the council has behaved unreasonably; any costs you have incurred which you think were avoidable can be the subject of a claim to the Planning Inspectorate at the time of your appeal.

How do I complain?

  • You should normally complain to the council first. Councils often have more than one stage in their complaints procedure and you will usually have to complete all stages before we will look at your complaint.
  • Then, if you are unhappy with the outcome, or the council is taking too long to look into the matter – we think 12 weeks is reasonable – you can complain to us.
  • You should normally make your complaint to us within 12 months of realising that the council has done something wrong.
  • To complain to the Ombudsman phone our Advice Team on 0300 061 0614 (8.30am to 5.00pm, Mondays to Fridays). You will be able to discuss your complaint with one of our advisers. You can text us on 0762 480 4323.
  • You can complete an online complaint form.

If you consider my complaint what will the Ombudsman look for?

  • First, we must consider whether your complaint is one the Ombudsman can investigate. If it is, we must then consider whether we should do so or whether there is an alternative which would be more appropriate.
  • In those complaints by people who have made planning applications which we can investigate we would consider whether the council has done something wrong in the way it went about dealing with certain aspects of the situation which have caused you problems.
  • Some of the issues we can look at might include whether you have been given:
    • inaccurate information about procedures or planning law
    • misleading advice in advance of making an application, or
    • no or an inadequate response to correspondence about your development proposals before an application is made or determined.

What happens if the Ombudsman finds the council was at fault?

  • It depends on what the fault was and what consequences it had for you. Sometimes things go wrong but do not affect the outcome. And sometimes the faults might mean that someone has been treated wrongly or has not had access to the planning or appeal processes as they ought to have done.
  • Where we find fault with the council’s procedures we will often recommend that the council makes changes so that the same problem does not occur again in the future. And where the consequences of what happened have been quite significant, we can recommend that the council takes action to put the matter right.
  • Sometimes, delay can make a situation worse, so we can ask the council to take some extra action which wouldn’t have been needed if everything had been done as it should in the first place.
  • Sometimes it will be appropriate for the council to pay compensation for the distress its actions have caused, and for the impact of unreasonable delay. The amount we ask for would depend on exactly how you have been affected, and we can also take account of whether there was any action you took which made the situation worse, or action you could have taken to improve matters.

Examples of some complaints we have considered

Mr A was aggrieved that the council had refused him planning permission and that it subsequently failed to provide what he considered to be an adequate explanation of its decision or to reply to correspondence about it within a reasonable time or at all. He complained to the Ombudsman and was told that we would not investigate his complaint because he had the right to appeal to the Planning Inspectorate against the refusal of planning permission. The reasons for the refusal were set out on the council’s decision notice and were reasonably clear, even if Mr A wanted to enter into a discussion with the council about them outside the normal appeal process. Any problems Mr A suffered as a result of the council’s actions were attributable to the decision to refuse planning permission, not to anything which the council did or did not do subsequently. So there were no grounds for us to investigate his complaint.

Other sources of information

Our fact sheets give some general information about the most common type of complaints we receive but they cannot cover every situation. If you are not sure whether we can look into your complaint, please phone 0300 061 0614.

The Local Government Ombudsmen provide a free, independent and impartial service. We consider complaints about the administrative actions of councils and some other authorities. We cannot question what a council has done simply because someone does not agree with it. If we find something has gone wrong, such as poor service, service failure, delay or bad advice and that a person has suffered as a result the Ombudsmen aim to get it put right by recommending a suitable remedy.

Date Updated: 12/09/11