London Borough of Tower Hamlets
Complaint overview
Between 1 April 2024 to 31 March 2025, we dealt with 211 complaints. Of these, 82 were not for us or not ready for us to investigate. We assessed and closed 77 complaints. We investigated 52 complaints.
More about this data
Complaints dealt with – the total number of complaints and enquiries considered. It is not appropriate to investigate all of them.
Not for us – includes complaints brought to us before the council was given chance to consider it, or the complainant came to the wrong Ombudsman.
Assessed and closed – includes complaints where the law says we’re not allowed to investigate, or it would be a poor use of public funds if we did.
Investigated – we completed an investigation and made a decision on whether we found fault, or no fault.
Complaints upheld – we completed an investigation and found evidence of fault, or the organisation provided a suitable remedy early on.
Satisfactory remedies provided by the Council – the council upheld the complaint and we agreed with how it offered to put things right.
Compliance with Ombudsman recommendations – not complying with our recommendations is rare. A council with a compliance rate below 100% should scrutinise the complaints where it failed to comply and identify any learning.
Average performance rates – we compare the annual statistics of similar types of councils to work out an average level of performance. We do this for County Councils, District Councils, Metropolitan Boroughs, Unitary Councils, and London Boroughs.
For more information on understanding our statistics see Interpreting our complaints data.
Complaints dealt with
Not for us
Assessed and closed
Investigated
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Complaints upheld
We investigated 52 complaints and upheld 43.
83% of complaints we investigated were upheld.
This compares to an average of 84% in similar authorities.
View upheld decisionsAdjusted for London Borough of Tower Hamlets's population, this is 13.1% upheld decisions per 100,000 residents.
The average for authorities of this type is
9.1% upheld decisions per 100,000 residents. -
Satisfactory remedies provided by the Council
In 1 out of 43 upheld cases we found the Council had provided a satisfactory remedy before the complaint reached the Ombudsman.
2% satisfactory remedy rate.
This compares to an average of 12% in similar authorities.
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Compliance with Ombudsman recommendations
We recorded compliance outcomes in 38 cases.
In 38 cases we were satisfied with the actions taken.100% compliance rate with recommendations.
This compares to an average of 100% in similar authorities.
Annual letters
We write to councils each year to give a summary of the complaint statistics we record about them,
and their performance in responding to our investigations.
Reports
The Ombudsman has published the following reports against London Borough of Tower Hamlets
Find out more about reports
We issue reports on certain investigations, particularly where there is a wider public interest to do so. Common reasons for reports are significant injustice, systemic issues, major learning points and non-compliance with our recommendations. Issuing reports is one way we help to ensure councils are accountable to local people and highlighting the learning from complaints helps to improve services for everybody. Reports are published for 10 years.
Homeless Tower Hamlets man suffered because of lack of joined-up support from council
Tower Hamlets council left a vulnerable man with significant care needs unsupported when he was made homeless, the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman has found.
Mother fleeing domestic abuse placed in unsuitable mixed-sex accommodation by Tower Hamlets council
A mother fleeing domestic abuse with her children had to live in accommodation, provided by Tower Hamlets council, that was so unsuitable her eldest child, who is disabled, regularly soiled themselves because they were scared of using the shared bathroom, the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman has heard.
Tower Hamlets to review housing register applications following Ombudsman investigation
London Borough of Tower Hamlets has agreed to review the way it allocates properties after the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman uncovered it had a long backlog in processing applications to join its housing register.
Tower Hamlets did not do enough to help family facing homelessness in the borough
London borough of Tower Hamlets did not do enough to help a family who were about to be evicted by their landlord, the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman found.
Autistic boy denied parking bay by Tower Hamlets
A young boy with autism, and his family, were denied a parking bay outside their house by London Borough of Tower Hamlets, despite him receiving the highest rate of Disability Living Allowance for his mobility, the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman has found.
Pregnant homeless woman left to sleep on hard floor by LB Tower Hamlets
A pregnant woman, who approached Tower Hamlets council for help when she was made homeless, was left in an unfurnished flat, miles from her support network, the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman has found.
A family and friends foster carer who took on three vulnerable children after their mother was unable to care for them, failed to get council support for the arrangement for six years.
Service improvements
The Council has agreed to make the following improvements to its services following an Ombudsman investigation.
Find out more about service improvements
When we find fault, we can recommend improvements to systems and processes where they haven’t worked properly, so that others do not suffer from these same problems in future. Common examples are policy changes; procedural reviews; and staff training. Service improvements from decisions are published for 5 years and those from reports are published for 10 years.
The latest 10 cases are listed below – click ‘view all’ to find all service improvements.
Case reference: 24 010 862
Category: Transport and highways
Sub Category: Traffic management
- Remind staff to consider the Public Sector Equality Duty as part of the Council’s decision-making process.
Case reference: 24 005 624
Category: Benefits and tax
Sub Category: Council tax
- The Council will remind complaints officers to address the full complaint in its complaint responses and provide responses in line with the timescales set out in the Council’s corporate complaints policy.
Case reference: 24 003 907
Category: Housing
Sub Category: Allocations
- The Council has agreed to ensure all frontline staff understand the Council’s duty to make reasonableadjustments and know how to identify, record, and act on a request forreasonable adjustments. It will provide training or guidance as needed.
Case reference: 24 003 027
Category: Housing
Sub Category: Homelessness
- Within three months of the decision, the Council will review the causes of the delays identified and produce a plan to avoid a recurrence.
Case reference: 24 000 559
Category: Adult care services
Sub Category: Other
- The Council will remind social workers and their managers of the Council’s duties for people who are placed in the community settings and who lack mental capacity to make decisions about their care arrangements.
Case reference: 23 021 071
Category: Education
Sub Category: Special educational needs
- The Council has agreed to review its procedures for withdrawing a personal budget and ensure that clear notification is given to a service user when the Council intends to withdraw a personal budget with full substantiated reasons and a right of review or appeal.
Case reference: 23 019 942
Category: Adult care services
Sub Category: Assessment and care plan
- The Council will review the wording of its direct payment and personal budget policy regarding those who receive direct payments. It will clarify how oncosts related to being an employer are calculated. This will help service users to understand whether oncosts are a standard amount or assessed on a case-by-case basis.
Case reference: 23 019 868
Category: Housing
Sub Category: Homelessness
- The Council has agreed to provide training or guidance to relevant staff on the expectations of Chapter 21of the Homelessness Code of Guidance relating to gathering evidence and making inquiries about domestic abuse.
- The Council has agreed to remind relevant staff that the Homelessness Code of Guidance explicitly directs that the council should not approach alleged perpetrators of domestic abuse.
- The Council has agreed to remind relevant staff that if they are departing from the Code of Guidance, they should record detailed reasons for doing so in a particular case.
Case reference: 23 019 552
Category: Housing
Sub Category: Allocations
- The Council will apologise to the 46 housing register applicants whose reviews of its priority decision were delayed between January and July 2024. The apologies should meet the standards set out in the Ombudsman's guidance on remedies.
- The Council will backdate the priority banding of the three housing register applicants whose reviews of the it's priority banding decision was delayed between January and July 2024 and ultimately upheld.
- The Council will review the template letter it uses for medical priority decisions and review outcomes. The review letter should ensure that where staff are refusing an application, they are prompted to explain, in enough detail, how they considered medical information and why the information was either discounted or insufficient to demonstrate a need for medical priority. The Council may want to consider the Ombudsman's recent focus report 'Medical assessments for housing applicants' as part of the review.
- The Council will remind housing staff that when a housing applicant says their health is being affected by disrepair in their property, they should share the details of its Environmental Services team, who can carry out hazard inspections.
- The Council will send the Ombudsman an action plan setting out how it will reduce the wait time for housing register priority banding reviews. The plan should set out the steps the Council will take, who will complete them and by when.
Case reference: 23 018 987
Category: Adult care services
Sub Category: Transport
- The Council will remind staff in its parking and mobility services about the importance of sending all relevant evidence to the Council’s expert assessors for blue badge applications.
Last updated: 4 April 2015