Local authority leaders have an historic opportunity to rebuild public trust in local services through local government reforms, says the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman.

New figures, showing a 33% rise in complaints made to the Ombudsman about English authorities over the past year, suggest the case for change is more urgent than ever.

The Ombudsman’s annual review of complaints argues the sweeping programme of local government reorganisation and devolution underway across England is a chance to break down the barriers that have held back joined-up delivery of public services for decades.

The LGSCO received 27,625 complaints in 2025-26, more than doubling the 16% rise recorded the previous year, across every service area from housing and adult social care to special educational needs and children's services. The scale of the increase is striking:

• Complaints about benefits and tax rose fastest, growing by 65% followed by housing (46%) and children’s services (41%).
• Housing complaints were the most common issue brought to the Ombudsman – making up almost 20% of complaints received, with complaints about homeless services and social housing allocations the most common issues raised.
• London Boroughs saw the sharpest rise of any authority type at 45%.
• In education, complaints about support for children with special educational needs made up more than a third of all the cases we upheld, more than any other single issue.

Ombudsman, Amerdeep Clarke said the figures reflect not just individual service failures, but a broader and deepening crisis of public confidence - a pattern visible across all UK public sector Ombudsman bodies.

Mrs Clarke added:

"A 33% rise in complaints is not a statistical blip. It is a signal. When people cannot get the help they need, and feel they have no other recourse, they come to us. That so many are doing so tells us something important: there is a serious and growing gap between what residents expect and what they are receiving from their local authorities.

"The once-in-a-generation programme of local government reorganisation and devolution now underway presents a genuine opportunity to redesign services, break down the silos that have frustrated joined-up delivery for decades, and find locally-driven solutions to problems that have persisted through successive waves of national reform.

“New authorities should not inherit old failures: they should inherit the learning that comes from them. That intelligence, if left uncaptured, cannot be recovered.

"The problems documented here are serious. But they are not insurmountable. And the opportunity to address them, at pace and at scale, has rarely been greater."

The report also gives reason for optimism. When someone brings a complaint, the Ombudsman first assesses whether it needs a full investigation. In a growing number of cases - up 20% this year - the Ombudsman found that the authority had already dealt with the complaint properly through its own process. This suggests authorities are improving how they handle complaints. When the Ombudsman does make formal recommendations, local authorities act on them in 99.9% of cases, though in more than 750 instances, agreed actions were carried out later than required.

The review also highlights independent University of Manchester research, funded by the Nuffield Foundation, which found many of the problems driving complaints are rooted in national systemic failures, including inadequate funding and chronic shortages of educational psychologists among them. That research concluded that how seriously local authorities engage with learning from complaints makes a measurable difference to residents' lives.

Article date: 15 July 2026